The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) is challenged by a spate of corruption probes on its mayors.
Though most accusations focus on how they took bribes from businesspeople, details in some investigations disclosed mayors, from Istanbul and Antalya to Uşak and Bolu, also exploited municipal resources to fund lavish lifestyles of girlfriends, often in extramarital affairs.
For instance, an indictment of the mayor of Mediterranean province Antalya, Muhittin Böcek, points out to fast-tracked career of Melek K., the mayor’s girlfriend, at the Antalya municipality. Melek K. was hired by the municipality as a tea vendor in 2013 and in 10 years, she was promoted to the rank of civil servant and later to the rank of inspector at a municipal subsidiary. She was also assigned the municipality’s chauffeurs courtesy of Böcek. The indictment also revealed the mayor’s son, Gökhan, had a girlfriend working at the municipality and purchased millions of dollars of gifts for her, from luxury vehicles to watches and jewellery.
The indictment accepted by the Antalya 6th High Criminal Court against Böcek accuses him and other defendants of a range of offenses, including bribery through coercion, illicit enrichment, influence peddling, money laundering, aggravated fraud and defamation. Prosecutors are seeking prison sentences of between 15 years and six months to 44 years for Böcek on charges including coercive bribery, unjust enrichment and laundering of assets derived from criminal activity. The indictment also calls for increased penalties under provisions related to repeated or organized offenses.
Istanbul’s former Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, who was arrested last March on charges of corruption, also provided financial support to volleyball player Derya Çayırgan, reportedly the girlfriend of the married mayor. Çayırgan paid TL 800,000 instead of the listed price of TL 4.1 million for a residence in Istanbul’s Beylikdüzü district constructed by a company whose owner claimed he paid a bribe to Imamoğlu. Çayırgan, who was recently questioned by investigators, failed to explain the discount, while witnesses in a separate probe on drug-related charges toward Çayırgan claimed that Imamoğlu funded Çayırgan.
Dubbed “corruption of the century” by some Turkish media outlets, Imamoğlu and his associates at the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB) are accused of involvement in 143 acts of bribery and corruption. Their actions cost the public TL 161 billion ($3.65 billion), according to the prosecutors.
The businessman-turned-mayor faces prison terms of up to 2,352 years for multiple instances of corruption that mainly revolve around bribery accusations from businesspeople in exchange for operating, construction permits and accusations of widespread rigging in lucrative tenders of the municipality.
Mustafa Bozbey, mayor of Bursa, was arrested last week on charges of corruption, while his wife, Seden Baştimur, was detained in the same investigation. Bozbey had an extramarital affair with Baştimur before both divorced their spouses and married in 2014. Antalya Mayor Muhittin Böcek reportedly asked Bozbey to hire Baştimur, then wife of a security guard working for Böcek, for the municipality of Bursa’s Nilüfer district, where Bozbey served as mayor before his election as mayor of the city’s metropolitan municipality. Bozbey hired Baştimur as personal aide, skipping usual procedures for municipal hires, before the two started an affair.
Rıza Akpolat, former mayor of Istanbul’s Beşiktaş district who was arrested on charges of corruption in late 2024, had his marriage collapsed when videos revealed his affair with Yeşim Ağırman, then head of the women’s branch for CHP in Istanbul. Investigations revealed that Akpolat funneled cash he had accumulated from bribes to Ağırman. The investigation also showed that the former mayor handed over the ownership of a luxury flat in the district to a brother of Ağırman, before the couple got married.
Özkan Yalım, the mayor of the western city of Uşak for CHP, who was detained on March 27 on charges of corruption, also had multiple extramarital affairs and is accused of funding them through municipal resources. Yalım was detained in a hotel room in Ankara with his 21-year-old mistress, but media reports later revealed he had three more girlfriends in extramarital affairs. One of them, Aslıhan Aksoy, was discovered to be hired by the Uşak municipality and was regularly paid wages, though she did not show up for work at any time. Yalım also gifted a residence and a car to another girlfriend, reportedly by using municipal resources.
At least a dozen CHP mayors have been detained or arrested since last year, with several more facing ongoing corruption and bribery investigations or trials.
