Authorities on Thursday detained two members of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) on charges of corruption and fraud.
Ümit Erkol, the CHP chair for the capital Ankara branch, was detained in an investigation into corruption in the western city of Izmir, a CHP stronghold. Ömer Eşki, mayor of Izmir’s Bornova district, was also detained on charges of fraud and forgery. Eşki was facing an investigation for putting a suspect on the municipality’s payroll, awarding the suspect a no-show job.
The probe that netted Erkol centered on a building cooperative in Izmir that was reportedly entangled in corruption. Izmir’s former mayor, Tunç Soyer, and dozens of others, including municipal bureaucrats and the CHP’s former chair for Izmir, were arrested last year in the same probe. Soyer was acquitted of one of the charges in the case, but remained in jail as he faces other charges of corruption.
More than 20 mayors governing CHP municipalities have been detained or arrested in the past two years on charges of corruption, along with dozens of municipal bureaucrats.
