Ümit Erkol, president of the provincial section of Ankara for the Republican People’s Party (CHP), has been summoned as part of a corruption investigation. The Turkish opposition has been under pressure since the detention of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu in March 2025.
New pressure on the Turkish opposition. The head of the first parliamentary opposition party in Ankara was arrested and detained on Sunday at the end of his custody, in a corruption investigation, reported the local press.
Ümit Erkol, president of the provincial section of Ankara for the Republican People’s Party (CHP), was summoned along with eight other people in an investigation conducted by the Izmir prosecutor’s office regarding alleged irregularities in a contract between the municipality of this city and a construction cooperative, Izbeton, explain the information sites T24 and Birgün. According to the Izmir prosecutor quoted by these publications, the investigation concerns “allegations of embezzlement, aggravated fraud, falsification of official documents, and failure to fulfill surveillance obligations.”
Erdogan in power since 2003
Mansur Yavas, the CHP mayor of Ankara, the Turkish capital, denounced this detention, emphasizing in a message on X that Mr. Erkol is “a well-known figure, with a clear address and a specific public role,” adding that there is “no risk of escape, no possibility of tampering with evidence.” “If an arrest warrant is issued in these circumstances, then we cannot speak of justice,” he insists.
The Turkish opposition has been under pressure since the arrest and detention of Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu in March 2025, who has been on trial since March 9 for corruption, along with 413 co-defendants. Ekrem Imamoglu, designated by the CHP as its candidate for the presidential election scheduled for May 2028, was seen as a favorite and the only one capable of defeating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in power since 2003 and re-elected in 2023. Four CHP municipal mayors, including the mayor of Bursa (northwest), the fourth largest city in the country regained by the opposition in 2024, have been arrested since the trial began.
