Turkey’s Erdogan Captures City His Party Never Won in Elections

The mayor of Izmir joined President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AK Party, handing it control of Turkey’s third-largest city and an opposition stronghold it’s never won in an election in more than 23 years in power.

Erdogan announced the membership of Cemil Tugay, who was elected in 2024 under the opposition ticket, at an AK Party meeting on Wednesday.

The move is the latest blow to an already battered opposition in Turkey, which in the past two years has had dozens of elected officials arrested on a wide range of corruption-related charges and the control of many provinces or districts wrested away — including several it flipped from AK Party rule in municipal elections in 2024. Those arrested include Istanbul Mayor and presidential candidate Ekrem Imamoglu.

Losing Izmir, which has a population of 4.5 million, will represent a deep symbolic wound. Secularist sentiment is strong in the Aegean port city, which has only ever voted in opposition candidates throughout Erdogan’s almost quarter-century in power, even as cities such as Istanbul and Ankara have changed hands. Tugay defeated the AK Party candidate in 2024 by about 12 percentage points.

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Nearly 80 provincial, municipal or district mayors have transferred to the AK Party in the past two years, according to local media outlet Medyascope. Opposition officials allege such moves occur under pressure of prosecution. The justice ministry says its operations are free of political influence.

Erdogan will seek reelection in 2028 despite term limitations, Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said in mid-September, one of the clearest signals yet of the 72-year-old longtime ruler’s plans. The president’s coalition partner urged parliament this week to vote to move up the election date, which would allow Erdogan to run.

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Tugay joined a wave of resignations from the Republican People’s Party after a court decision in May unseated the party’s elected chair, Ozgur Ozel, and reinstalled his polarizing predecessor. Unlike many, Tugay did not join Ozel’s breakaway New Party but continued as an independent.

He said in an interview last year that there wasn’t “even a one-in-a-million chance” he’d join the AK Party. He reiterated this past August, “I have no plans to join a political party at this time.”

Tugay then visited Erdogan at the presidential palace in Ankara on Sept. 30, raising questions about a potential party move. In a statement following the visit, Tugay said that he only briefed the president “on the important issues currently on the agenda in Izmir.”

In the past week alone, authorities have arrested the opposition mayor of the southern province of Mersin and detained the mayor and deputy mayor of two major Istanbul districts.

In the past week alone, authorities have arrested the opposition mayor of the southern province of Mersin and also jailed the mayor and deputy mayor of two major Istanbul districts.