One month after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan highlighted the need for reforms in local administrations, his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) held a workshop on that subject. The party aims to boost the “1994 vision” to improve municipal services and end debates on jurisdiction. Erdoğan’s political career and popularity skyrocketed after being elected mayor of Istanbul, Türkiye’s most populous city, in 1994. He is credited with turning around the fortunes of the city that was plagued with problems, ranging from constant water shortages to a trash crisis.
Erdoğan’s success as mayor also served as a blueprint for the AK Party’s campaigns in subsequent municipal elections. Indeed, improved municipal services, particularly in infrastructure, helped the party to secure victories in successive municipal elections in the past two decades. However, it suffered dramatic losses in the latest municipal vote held in 2024, conceding mayoral seats to its main rival, the Republican People’s Party (CHP).
CHP-run municipalities, however, are under fire for a lack of service improvement and corruption. Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, who won the second municipal election on a CHP ticket in 2024, was among the high-profile mayors of the main opposition who were recently arrested on a spate of charges ranging from rigging public tenders to taking bribes in exchange for building permits.
In a speech in May, Erdoğan said parties should come together in Parliament to implement a more efficient local administrative system, addressing public demands for services. “We believe it will be beneficial to rehabilitate our local administration system, from small town municipalities to provincial private administrations (run by state-appointed governors) and address shortcomings,” he told a parliamentary group meeting of the AK Party. Erdoğan said reforms under the AK Party for local administrations were overshadowed by debates over authority in municipality-run locations. “Dispute over jurisdiction between central administrative bodies and municipalities overshadowed the real purpose of serving the people. Authority given to municipalities is exploited by some ill-minded municipal administrators to obtain illicit wealth and advance their own careers, instead of being used to accelerate the process involving public services,” Erdoğan has complained. The president has highlighted that more people were complaining of corruption in municipal services, from administrators squandering revenues of municipalities to those funnelling resources to “illegal networks.”
Erdoğan has pointed out that there was a need to review the jurisdiction of municipalities, especially those farthest from central municipalities in provinces, citing that urban municipalities had difficulties in addressing the needs of municipalities of smaller districts located remotely from the central province. He said there should be clearer regulations on jurisdiction, “to end the incidents such as disputes amounting to brawls between municipal police of municipalities run by different political parties.”
On Saturday, the AK Party held a workshop in Kocaeli in northwestern Türkiye, entitled “Future of Local Administrations: Problems and Solutions.” AK Party Deputy Chair Mustafa Demir, a former district mayor, chaired the workshop. The workshop was attended by officials from the Interior Ministry, the Ministry of Environment, Urban Planning and Climate Change, the Ministry of Treasury and Finance, as well as representatives of municipalities, academics and the private sector.
Demir told reporters on the sidelines of the event that their every step is based on a “municipal vision” implemented by Erdoğan in 1994. “We are working together to give municipalities a more participatory, transparent, accountable and sustainable structure."
