ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkish authorities have ramped up investigations and detentions of opposition figures, with three such actions on Monday alone, raising concerns about a widening crackdown on dissent against the government.
The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) youth branch head was briefly detained for a social media post about the Istanbul prosecutor, the party said, and a judicial probe was launched against CHP Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu – a probable future presidential challenger – for criticising the detention.
Also Monday, the leader of the far right opposition Victory Party, Umit Ozdag, was detained for allegedly insulting Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan.
The CHP has long criticised the Istanbul prosecutor and the judiciary as a tool that Erdogan’s ruling AK Party (AKP) uses to silence opposition. It has called for early national elections to “settle scores”, though analysts say a vote is unlikely to be held so far ahead of schedule.
Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc dismissed the accusation that the judiciary is politicised. On Monday, he said the judiciary is independent and the Istanbul prosecutor is acting in line with the constitution.
Since municipal elections in March in which AKP suffered heavy losses, two CHP Istanbul district mayors have been arrested – one for alleged terrorism ties and another for alleged tender rigging – while another from an eastern province was ousted, also for alleged terrorism ties.
Six elected mayors from the pro-Kurdish DEM Party were also ousted for alleged terrorism ties, denied by the party, and replaced by government-appointed officials.
“Recent developments show that Turkey is evolving into an increasingly authoritarian atmosphere, where the opposition’s chance of winning elections is becoming less likely,” said political analyst Berk Esen of Sabanci University.
The legal flurry came a week after an Istanbul district mayor was arrested and accused by prosecutors of rigging public tenders, which the CHP dismisses as politically motivated.
The party’s youth branch head, Cem Aydin, was detained and later released with some restrictions on movements after the branch had posted a social media video criticising the Istanbul prosecutor conducting this probe.
Then Imamoglu, the mayor, said at an event discussing judicial independence: “Obviously Mr. Prosecutor is thinking about us day and night, and conducts his profession in that way,” adding that the prosecutor, a former deputy justice minister, was acting like a politician.
Minutes after his speech, the latest investigation was launched.
Imamoglu has appealed against a 2022 sentence for insulting public officials when he criticised a decision to cancel the first round of earlier municipal elections, in which he defeated the AKP candidate. If the sentence is upheld he could be banned from politics for five years.
He won a strong mayoral re-election last year when Erdogan’s AKP suffered its worst ever losses in municipal elections.
“Our party is ready for elections, our candidate is also ready,” CHP leader Ozgur Ozel said on Monday alongside Imamoglu.
Erdogan has dismissed CHP criticism as petty and said the AKP is focused on power shifts in the region.
Ozdag, the far right leader, was detained over comments in which he said “even crusades had not done as much damage to Turkey as Erdogan has.”
CHP’s Ozel said it was another government attempt to discredit dissenters.
(Reporting by Huseyin Hayatsever; Additional reporting by Birsen Altayli, Editing by William Maclean)
