Overview

• Fifty municipal employees, including İmamoğlu’s chief secretary, bodyguard, and waterworks director, were detained as part of corruption and terrorism investigations.
• Authorities have issued 53 arrest warrants targeting individuals associated with İmamoğlu’s administration, with three suspects still at large.
• The detentions come over a month after İmamoğlu, a leading opposition figure and Erdoğan rival, was arrested and suspended on contested charges.
• The opposition CHP accuses the government of politically motivated actions to suppress dissent and resistance to Erdoğan’s Kanal Istanbul mega-project.
• Nationwide protests, the largest since 2013, persist weekly, with tens of thousands rallying in cities like Mersin in solidarity with İmamoğlu.