Ferdi Zeyrek, the mayor of the western province of Manisa for the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), remains in intensive care as of Monday after he was electrocuted at his home last Friday.
The 48-year-old politician was severely injured and later resuscitated at the hospital he was taken to in his hometown.
The incident united the government and the CHP, which have been on bad terms recently. Current and previous health ministers are leading the coordination of efforts for Zeyrek's recovery while the Ministry of Justice oversees the investigation into the incident, allegedly caused by negligence in electrical wiring in the mayor’s home.
The mayor’s daughter, Nehir Zeyrek, has claimed that her father suspected faulty wiring and called the person responsible for its maintenance. She said in a social media post that his father went to check on a glitch in wiring on Friday, and they found him electrocuted moments later.
She claimed her father did not even touch the wiring and was electrocuted through contact on his leg. “The circuit breaker was not working, and we heard that the electricity flow was deliberately increased in the past to prevent the flow from being disrupted. If this is really the case, this is beyond negligence,” she wrote.
The head of an electrical engineers’ chamber has also told the media that initial findings showed negligence on the part of maintenance staff and that protective covering against electrocution at the scene of the incident was subpar.
Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç announced earlier that investigators interviewed 12 people to find out more details about the incident, while two people are being treated as “suspects” in the investigation and were questioned.
Tunç said a team of experts examined the scene and found a technical malfunction in the wiring of the swimming pool at Zeyrek’s residence and a glitch in systems controlling electricity overflow that likely led to the electrocution of the mayor.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli were among those who called CHP Chair Özgür Özel to extend wishes for a speedy recovery of Zeyrek, while CHP supporters held vigils outside the hospital where the mayor is being treated. Doctors said the mayor’s health condition was “neither better nor worse” since his hospitalization, citing significant damage to the mayor’s organs during the incident. Manisa-born Özel was at the hospital again on Monday and told reporters that doctors told him that there was no need currently to transfer the mayor to another hospital for further treatment.
The CHP chairperson told reporters that health care workers were working night and day to keep Zeyrek alive and thanked the medical staff for their dedicated efforts. “We constantly receive calls from the health minister, former Health Minister Fahrettin Koca, chief physicians of university hospitals across Türkiye, and they always tell us that they would do whatever they can to help (Zeyrek’s) recovery,” he said.
Zeyrek, an architect, was elected as Manisa mayor in the March 31, 2024, elections after serving as head of the Manisa branch of the CHP.
