A network of corruption across municipalities in Istanbul, Türkiye’s most populated city, is under the spotlight after the March arrest of the city’s Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, a popular name of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). An in-depth investigation into the wrongdoings of an alleged criminal network led by Imamoğlu led to five separate operations that netted dozens of suspects. In the meantime, more people come forward to confess to the wrongdoings involving Imamoğlu and other suspects.
Some 24 suspects among 230 detained so far invoked leniency laws in exchange for valuable information shedding light on the accusations. Most are names closest to Imamoğlu, including top bureaucrats of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB).
Confessions of suspects shape the investigation centered at IBB, which led to the arrest of 114 people out of 230. Twenty-four suspects were released with judicial control after accepting a collaboration deal with investigators. Among those who benefited from leniency in prison terms are Murat Abbas, former head of Kültür AŞ, a subsidiary of IBB, Ertan Yıldız, who chaired a committee overseeing the municipality’s subsidiaries, Mustafa Mutlu, who served as an adviser for public tenders for Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district municipality, and businesspeople Murat Ilbak, Aziz Ihsan Aktaş, Eyüp Subaşı, Ali Nuhoğlu, Seyfi Beyaz and Süleyman Atik.
Murat Abbas has accused Murat Ongun, a top bureaucrat of IBB and a confidante of Imamoğlu, of organizing irregularities in public tenders and recruitment of municipal officials while Yıldız shed light on a bribery ring at the municipality. Yıldız has confessed that a company paid $1.2 million to cut down red tape and Aykut Erdoğdu, a former CHP lawmaker, acted as intermediary for bribe between the company and IBB. Yıldız told investigators that Erdoğdu brought a bag full of cash and handed it over to Fatih Keleş, chair of IBB Sports Club who is accused of serving as “coffer” for illicit cash accumulated by Imamoğlu.
Ali Nuhoğlu has confessed that he bought three villas in Istanbul’s upscale Emirgan quarters after the city’s water utility paid him a hefty sum for work, and in turn, he sold the villas to a construction company owned by Imamoğlu’s family far below the properties’ real value, as a disguise for the bribe. Nuhoğlu has told investigators that the water utility also forced him to slash its debt to the businessman and pay the slashed amount to the utility’s officials.
Aziz Ihsan Aktaş said that municipalities he won public tenders, particularly the Beşiktaş municipality, forced him to pay extra cash for tenders and extra money was handed to the district’s mayor and his deputies, while in some occasions, he was forced to purchase overpriced properties and vehicles from those people as a disguise for bribes.
Servet Yıldırım, a chauffeur for Hüseyin Köksal, a businessman, told investigators that Imamoğlu told his boss to set up two companies exclusively for access to IBB’s public tenders. Yıldırım said Imamoğlu, Köksal and another suspect shared the illicit cash they won through tenders for lucrative advertising spaces, billboards in the city.
The CHP has claimed that anti-graft operations against municipalities were politically motivated, but officials deny it and point to the independence of the judiciary, which carries out the operations. In the first wave of 2025 operations against municipalities, Imamoğlu and 105 others were detained on March 19 and remain incarcerated in pretrial detention. Looking to earn popularity for Imamoğlu, the CHP has declared him its presidential candidate for the upcoming elections, although annulment of his university diploma days before his detention over irregularities made the former mayor ineligible to run for top office.
In a speech last month, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hit out at CHP for defending Imamoğlu and others detained on corruption charges.
“If you don’t work for the nation, you are either a 'rantçı' (profiteer) or a 'bantçı' (someone who uses tape to conceal something),” he said at a meeting of his Justice and Development Party (AK Party). “Bantçı” in this case refers to a bodyguard of Imamoğlu who was captured in footage as he put tape on security cameras before Imamoğlu’s secretive meeting at a hotel with fellow bureaucrats of IBB. Media outlets reported that the footage emerged in the investigation into the former mayor’s alleged wrongdoings, raising suspicions about the nature of the meeting, which was followed and preceded by more at the same hotel. Some reports claimed that the meeting and others were the venue of discussions on how to share illegal profits Imamoğlu and others gained through graft, from rigging public tenders to bribery in exchange for building permits.
“You see what happened to profiteers, you see what state they drove Istanbul into. We witnessed how they terrorized the squares. They do not tolerate anyone other than themselves. They try to bully anyone who disagrees with them, they attack anyone who does not side with thieves,” Erdoğan said. The CHP held pro-Imamoğlu rallies, claiming the innocence of the mayor, after Imamoğlu’s arrest in March. Rallies in Istanbul and other cities escalated into violent riots. The CHP supporters also launched social media campaigns against celebrities not endorsing the rallies, while the party’s leader, Özgür Özel, called for a boycott of companies he accused of serving the government’s interests, as well as against broadcasters not broadcasting the rallies live.
The president stated that they witnessed a new act of corruption surfacing “almost every day” in the investigation into what he called a criminal organization. “You see how they looted Istanbul’s resources. (The authorities) reveal the tentacles of an octopus extending from Istanbul to other cities, to abroad. Their own colleagues confess how they extorted money and received bribes,” Erdoğan said.
