Turkish police detained 25 people, two deputy mayors among them, on Oct. 13 in a corruption investigation into Etimesgut Municipality in the capital Ankara, prosecutors said.
The Ankara West Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said the inquiry concerns suspected irregularities in municipal tenders, as well as alleged document forgery and the unlawful obtaining of benefits through zoning and permit procedures.
The detentions were carried out in simultaneous operations across five provinces. Five municipal officials are among the suspects, according to the prosecutor’s office, which identified the two deputy mayors only by the initials G.B. and F.G.
Second operation in under three months
The operation is the second against the district municipality this summer, widening an investigation that has already removed Etimesgut’s elected mayor from office. On July 30, an earlier raid led to the detention of 55 people, including Mayor Erdal Beşikçioğlu, who is also a well-known actor. Beşikçioğlu has been held in pretrial detention since Aug. 3 and was suspended from office after his arrest.
In an Aug. 10 vote to choose a replacement, Seda Dilber, the candidate put forward by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), was elected.
Beşikçioğlu later said he would stay with the CHP and would not join the New Party set up by Özgür Özel and a group of lawmakers.
Wider pattern of municipal investigations
Investigations targeting municipalities run by opposition mayors have intensified over the past year, Hürriyet Daily News reported. Several opposition mayors and senior municipal officials have been jailed pending trial, among them Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.
No figure was given for the value of the tenders under scrutiny, and it was not yet clear whether prosecutors would seek formal arrest for any of those detained on Tuesday.
Sources
Photo: Ex13 / CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
