Muhittin Böcek, former mayor of Antalya who was arrested in a corruption probe, admitted paying 5 million euros to Ekrem Imamoğlu, another former mayor charged with corruption, for candidacy at the Turkish main opposition CHP.
Böcek came forward with more confessions this week, long after his arrest in a corruption investigation. Böcek told investigators that he had a deal with Ekrem Imamoğlu, former mayor of Istanbul, to pay 15 million euros in exchange of securing a candidacy for Antalya in the past elections. Böcek’s statements made public over the weekend indicate the influence of Imamoğlu within the party, which declared him as a future presidential candidate following his 2025 arrest on charges of rampant corruption at Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB).
In his earlier statements where he sought a leniency in his future sentencing, Böcek has admitted making a payment to party’s headquarters for candidacy in municipal elections. He has claimed that the party’s then chair Özgür Özel instructed him to deliver 950,000 euros to Ferdi Zeyrek, the late mayor of western city of Manisa and a close associate of Özel, to contribute to his campaign for candidacy. In his new statement, Böcek said Imamoğlu asked for 15 million euros and he used “hawala” system to pay five million euros of the request and skipped the rest of the payment when Imamoğlu was arrested in March 2025. Böcek also claimed that Imamoğlu asked him to cover his expenses for the Mediterranean leg of his future presidential campaign.
In his statement to prosecutors in Antalya, Böcek repeated his previous statement and explained that he traveled to
Manisa upon the direction of Özel, before the 2024 local elections. Böcek said he went to Manisa on Jan. 15, 2024, before his candidacy had been officially announced.
In his statement, Böcek claimed that after a meeting in Ankara, Özel instructed him to provide financial and project support to Zeyrek. Böcek said that while traveling to Manisa, he carried approximately €950,000 in a bag. He stated that after a social project presentation, he was briefly alone with Ferdi Zeyrek and left the money next to his desk during that time.
Muhittin Böcek also described another process he experienced regarding his candidacy for Antalya Metropolitan Municipality during the 2024 local elections. Böcek said that the mayor of Muratpaşa Municipality had met İmamoğlu, received certain assurances regarding the candidacy process in return of payments.
Böcek said that, in order to clarify his own candidacy, he traveled to Istanbul on Nov. 30, 2023, and held a meeting lasting approximately one hour with İmamoğlu at a hotel. Böcek stated that his private secretary Yasin Yellice witnessed the meeting and that afterward they took a photo together on the hotel balcony, which he shared on his social media account.
According to Böcek’s statement, İmamoğlu told him during the meeting that he had not promised the candidacy to anyone else and that he would choose Böcek. However, the most notable part of the meeting was the alleged financial support requested for the election campaign and İmamoğlu’s presidential ambitions. Böcek claimed that İmamoğlu told him he needed financial resources for his election campaign and also said that he was planning to run for the presidency in the future, sharing his political roadmap. According to his account, İmamoğlu said that Antalya would take on important responsibilities both economically and socially during this process and that Böcek needed to be prepared for this.
Böcek said that after returning to Antalya, he told a friend that he needed €5 million and would use the money to make a payment in Istanbul. According to his statement, a few days later the person he met took a photo of a 100 Turkish lira banknote and gave him a piece of paper inside an envelope with a name and phone number written on it. Böcek said he was told that the payment could be collected at Istanbul’s Grand Bazaar using the banknote and the paper.
Böcek stated that he believed this method was a secret payment system known as “hawala” and said he had no way of knowing from which currency exchange office the money was collected.
The former mayor said that, in order to cover part of the requested amount, he called İmamoğlu on Dec. 16, 2023, and traveled to Istanbul the next day, to meet with him again. Böcek stated that he went to a building used by İmamoğlu as an election campaign office, describing it as an office located on the ground floor of a high-rise plaza.
Böcek claimed that during their private meeting, he handed the banknote and the paper containing the phone number to İmamoğlu and said that he would settle the remaining part of the requested money over time. He also said that he pledged to win many districts of Antalya in the election and presented his work regarding the districts to İmamoğlu.
Another notable detail in Böcek’s statement concerned the remaining portion of the money he had pledged. Muhittin Böcek said that he did not provide the remaining support he claimed he had promised to İmamoğlu because İmamoğlu was arrested. He also stated that the same payment method was used to cover the election advertising expenses arranged by his son, Gökhan Böcek.
The former mayor also talked about the political ambitions of Imamoğlu and how his influence spread across the party. He said Imamoğlu began working on plans for the presidency after his success in the Istanbul elections and soon “turned into a political power by himself above the power of the party” and intervened to selection of mayoral candidates. He claimed that the Özel administration was dependent on Imamoğlu’s opinion in most of the work they’ve done in the party.
He also referred to new CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s recent statement that “Municipalities are not places that should meet the demands of party headquarters and leaders.” Böcek argued that these words reflected the essence of the ongoing debate, saying that one reason CHP municipal governance’s strong public support had weakened was that political ambitions had been placed ahead of municipal services.
