President Erdogan’s ruling party has taken control of the important municipality of Bursa following the arrest of its opposition mayor on April 4, along with 30 others.
Hamdi Firat Buyuk
The mayoralty of the northwestern Turkish city of Bursa shifted to control by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party, AKP, on Thursday after the city council elected a new acting mayor following the arrest of the elected opposition mayor, Mustafa Bozbey.
“We are not even fielding a candidate today. We are leaving them alone with this disgrace. The people gave it [the mayoralty] to us — now let’s see you take Bursa, which the voters did not give you at the ballot box, with a judge’s gavel,” Ozgur Ozel, leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, CHP, said on Thursday.
Bursa, an agricultural and industrial centre 155 km south of Istanbul on the coast of the Marmara Sea, has traditionally been a conservative stronghold, but the CHP won the local elections there in 2024, dealing a major blow to the Erdogan government.
In the elections, Bozbey of the CHP won the Bursa Metropolitan Municipality with around 47 per cent per cent of the vote, while the 106-seat municipal council majority remained with Erdogan’s ruling alliance.
Mayor Bozbey and 30 others were arrested for allegedly “forming a crime group” on April 4.
They are accused of “establishing an Organisation for the Purpose of Committing Crimes, Being a Member of an Organisation Established for the Purpose of Committing Crimes, and Laundering Assets Derived from Crime”, according to Bursa’s Public Prosecutor’s Office. They deny the charges.
Police intervened against protesters outside the municipality building using tear gas. Numerous people reportedly were detained but the authorities did not issue any official statement.
The AKP claims that power in the mayoralty has changed as a result of democratic processes.
“Today’s decision by our council represents the will of our people. Respect for the people’s will also requires respecting the council majority formed through the ballot box. I invite everyone to respect this democratic process, which operates within the rule of law, and the choice reflected in the people’s assembly,” the new acting mayor, Sahin Biba from the AKP, said in a written statement.
Over the last year, dozens of CHP mayors and hundreds of party members have been arrested on corruption and terror charges. Those include the arrest of Istanbul’s Mayor and opposition presidential candidate Ekrem Imamoglu on March 19, 2025. The prosecutor’s office is demanding a 2,352-year prison sentence for him. The CHP denies all the accusations.
Opposition politicians, rights groups and international organisations have said that Erdogan’s government is using the judiciary to crush political rivals in what they describe as an unprecedented crackdown.
