On Wednesday, a ruling party official warned against the “politicization” of the election of acting mayors in several Istanbul districts after the originally elected mayors were arrested on charges of corruption.
Municipal councils in Istanbul’s European side districts, Gaziosmanpaşa, Büyükçekmece and Avcılar, voted for new acting mayors after the Interior Ministry suspended the mayors elected in last year’s local elections due to a wide-scale investigation into a criminal network run by businessman Aziz Ihsan Aktaş.
The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Istanbul Provincial Chair Abdullah Özdemir said the elections were a “manifestation of the nation’s willpower.”
“There is no point to politicizing this process or trying to twist it into something else. The investigations regarding the metropolitan municipality mayor (Ekrem Imamoğlu) and other district mayors were an entirely judicial process, and we are merely observing it,” Özdemir told reporters after the election.
AK Party member Eray Karadeniz was voted as acting mayor of Gaziosmanpaşa, while the main opposition’s Republican People's Party (CHP), Ahmet Şahin, won Büyükçekmece, and Yüksel Can won Avcılar.
In his first remarks as acting mayor, Karadeniz emphasized his deep ties to the district: “Serving Gaziosmanpaşa, whose 16 neighborhoods I know intimately, is a profound responsibility and an immense honor,” he said. He pledged to fulfill his role with dedication, stating, “No one should doubt that I will live up to this responsibility in line with our belief that ‘those who serve earn honor.’"
The detentions of the three mayors were part of anti-graft operations against municipalities, largely run by the CHP, including its popular mayor of Istanbul, Imamoğlu.
The CHs claimed that the operations against municipalities were politically motivated, but officials denied it and pointed to the independence of the judiciary, which carried 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.