Turmoil has erupted in recent hours in Turkey, as reports multiply of mass arrests of opposition leaders in an operation that began in Istanbul and is expanding to other parts of the country. Turkish authorities arrested 109 people in Izmir, including officials from the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). According to the state-run Anadolu agency, the city’s former mayor, Tunç Soyer, was also arrested.
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The Izmir prosecutor issued arrest warrants for 157 people as part of an investigation into corruption, bid-rigging and fraud in the city’s municipality. Police authorities are still searching for 48 individuals.
Allegations from the CHP
Murat Bakan, a CHP parliamentarian in Izmir, stated that the judiciary “appears to be acting on orders.” He also compared today’s operation to the prosecutions that occurred earlier this year in Istanbul, when mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a political rival of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was arrested.
Meanwhile, the CHP rejects the corruption charges, while human rights organizations and Western countries speak of politically motivated prosecutions aimed at silencing the opposition and excluding electoral rivals. For its part, the Turkish government rejects the criticism and maintains that justice in the country operates independently.
