Cemil Tugay, mayor of Türkiye’s third-largest city, Izmir, was the latest among dozens of mayors joining the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). His switch was probably the most talked-about, as Izmir has been a stronghold of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), with no AK Party governance for more than two decades. In a lengthy interview with the Yeni Asır newspaper, Tugay explained the story of his historic switch and how he risked being branded a traitor by the opposition.
In the interview published on Sunday, Tugay lamented that neither his former party, the CHP, nor the New Party (YP), founded by former CHP Chair Özgür Özel, stood with him during his tenure, and spoke of how AK Party chair and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan instilled him with confidence.
“I gave (the switch) a lot of thought; I took a risk. It is not easy, but I believe I did the right thing,” he said. “The biggest gain for me was to feel the support of the president,” said Tugay, who joined the party on Oct. 7, weeks after his resignation from the CHP.
Tugay, elected mayor in 2024 as a CHP candidate, left the opposition party in June, one month after a bitter split among supporters of reinstated Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and Özgür Özel, who was ousted after a court verdict annulled his chairmanship on charges of vote-buying in a 2023 intra-party election. Despite consecutive wins in most provinces and districts over the past two decades, where it dominated the political landscape, the AK Party had found little support in the city, which is viewed as the heartland of CHP voters. Tugay defeated AK Party lawmaker Hamza Dağ in the 2024 vote, winning 48% of the vote against Dağ's 37%. The CHP also won 28 of Izmir's 30 district municipalities in the same election.
The mayor said he had faith in President Erdoğan, citing his background as Istanbul mayor. “He knows very well what state Izmir is in, and how public services can be carried out. I believe we can maintain healthy communication between Izmir and Ankara. Everything will be better for the city,” he said.
Tugay noted that he took over a municipality that faced many problems in 2024. “Aside from financial problems, it was a municipality where things were done in an unplanned manner and with a serious shortage of staff. For instance, IZBETON (a subsidiary of the municipality) was embattled with debt. I improved the municipal services, but the municipality still needs more. We need water treatment facilities, and we need improvements to the sewage system. I was at a crossroads. I would either try to resolve all the problems on my own or leave them to the next mayor. I decided it would be best to work with the AK Party government if it would help Izmir. I thought it was in the best interest of the residents of Izmir,” he said.
The mayor has incurred the wrath of both the CHP and YP, whose leader picked him as the mayoral candidate in the 2024 elections. Answering CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s claims that he was involved in irregularities and that Kılıçdaroğlu had warned the Özel administration not to nominate him, Tugay said this was not the case. He said he had repeatedly held talks with Kılıçdaroğlu before, and Kılıçdaroğlu never mentioned those claims and openly supported him. “If I was really a bad choice, they could have removed me from the party,” he complained. He said the CHP sought to keep him even after his resignation in June. “They asked me back repeatedly,” he claimed. He complained that the CHP had not stood with him during his tenure and was never interested in the problems the municipality faced. “I lived through many things. The CHP administration did not show up for inauguration ceremonies of big projects. When workers went on strike, the administration did not side with me,” he said.
