Turkey’s Interior Ministry has formally dismissed Inan Guney, the mayor of Istanbul’s Beyoglu district and a prominent member of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).
The announcement on 19 August follows Guney’s initial detention on 16 August and his subsequent official arrest two days later.
The Istanbul Governor’s office has separately stated that the district parliament in Beyoglu will elect a new mayor on 22 August. Given that the CHP holds a majority in the local assembly, it is anticipated that another member of the party will assume the post.
This development elevates the total number of jailed CHP mayors across Turkey to 18, including two mayors from Buyukcekmece, though the mayor of Adiyaman has since been reinstated.
The central government has so far seized control of ten CHP municipalities, namely Esenyurt, Ovacik, Sisli, Gaziosmanpasa, Aydin, Soke, Yenipazar, Sultanhisar, Sehitkamil, and Altinova. Three of these—Esenyurt, Ovacik, and Sisli—were taken over directly on terrorism charges, while the government holds a majority in the Gaziosmanpasa parliament.
The remaining five mayors are reported to have joined the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of their own “free will.”
In a contrasting trend, the district parliaments in twelve municipalities have elected new CHP mayors to replace those who were imprisoned. These include the metropolitan municipalities of Istanbul, Adana, and Antalya, alongside the Istanbul districts of Besiktas, Avcilar, Beylikduzu, Beykoz, Buyukcekmece, and Sile, as well as the Adana districts of Ceyhan and Seyhan, and the Antalya district of Manavgat.
Following the detention of a second mayor in Buyukcekmece, the local parliament there also elected another CHP member to the role.
The political landscape is further complicated by the situation of the pro-Kurdish DEM Party, which currently has ten of its municipalities governed by government-appointed trustees who replaced arrested mayors.
Notably, no additional Kurdish municipality has been seized since April, and none of those previously taken have been returned. Prior to February, when a collaboration was announced between the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Turkey’s ruling government, such seizures were typically framed as part of operations against the PKK.
Furthermore, two mayors from the Iyi Party, representing Yalvac and Yesiltepe, in addition to an independent mayor in Bozkurt, have also joined the AKP on their purported “free will.”
