President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Thursday said the main opposition party was attempting to mask its own errors and mislead the public through "theatrics," in his first remarks on the detention of Istanbul's mayor.
Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu was arrested on Wednesday as part of investigations into alleged corruption and terror links. Several other prominent figures, including two district mayors, were also detained.
Government officials reject claims by the Republican People's Party (CHP) that the legal actions are politically motivated and repeatedly insisted that the courts operate independently.
Erdoğan accused the opposition of failing to respond to the allegations with evidence or legal arguments.
"The opposition's attempts to present their internal conflicts or legal issues as the country's foremost problem are the height of hypocrisy," he said during an iftar, a fast-breaking meal, in the capital, Ankara.
This week, Istanbul University nullified Imamoğlu's diploma, citing alleged irregularities in his 1990 transfer from a private university in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus to its business faculty.
Imamoğlu said he would challenge the decision, which effectively bars him from running for president, since the position requires candidates to be university graduates.
"Whether it's about the diploma issue or matters of corruption and theft, the opposition never responds to the allegations brought forward by the judiciary," Erdoğan said.
"Instead, they confine the matter to political slogans, resorting to the easy way of provoking their base and deceiving the public."
"We have neither the time to waste on pointless debates nor stacks of money to recklessly throw around," Erdoğan said.
Prosecutors accuse Imamoğlu, 54, of exploiting his position for financial gain, including the improper allocation of government contracts.
In a separate investigation, prosecutors also accuse Imamoğlu and several other officials of helping the PKK terrorist group by recruiting its sympathizers. The PKK is designated a terrorist organization by Ankara, Washington and other allies.
The Republican People's Party's issues "are not the country's issues, but the issues of a handful of opportunists in their headquarters," Erdoğan said.
"We have no time to waste on the opposition's theatrics."
Omer Çelik, the spokesperson of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), also disputed allegations by the opposition that the detentions were government-orchestrated and urged respect for the judicial process.
"What a politician should do is to follow the judicial process," Çelik told journalists. "None of us have any information about the content of the (criminal) file."
He also rejected accusations leveled by the CHP that the mayor's arrest amounted to a "coup" saying, "The name of our party, our president can only be associated with democracy – on the opposite side of a coup."
