Next Stop: Ankara

TURKEY - In Brief 24 Sep 2025 by Atilla Yesilada
Early yesterday, an Ankara prosecutor ordered the arrest of 13 employees of the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality and independent contractors on charges of “overspending” ca. TL 150 mn ($4-5 mn depending on the exchange rates prevailing at the date of events). These accusations had been headlined in pro-AKP press at least six months ago. The office of Mansur Yavas issued a statement claiming that upon the a.m. news articles the municipality’s audit board has thoroughly investigated the charges, finding no overspending. The statement suggested that Ankara municipality in fact got discounts when compared to payments to private events and those organized by the Ministry of Culture at the same venues. God, do I need to be impartial about these charges or even go into the detail, when more than 30 CHP mayors have been arrested and/or defrocked on completely frivolous charges? In fact AKP is proud to leak to the press that its objective is to remove at least 100 CHP mayors, while the party expects at least 15 more of the same to join it soon—under the gun or attracted by some type of “incentive”. Borsa Istanbul shrugged off the incident in half a session, while to the extent I can investigate both CHP and a majority of pro-opposition journalist believe that on 24th of October, the Ankara court would acquit Ozgur Ozel and teammates in the controversial CHP Grand Convention case. Hereby, I put forth that these are pipe dreams. In fact, the timing of the Ankara municipality bust was chosen to send a message to CHP that it should expect no mercy from Erdogan. I assert once again that during the next hearing of this case, judges will rule to turn the party over to Kemal Kilicdarog...

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