Türkiye detained five municipal heads in the latest campaign against the opposition

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The Turkish authorities have detained five municipal heads and issued arrest orders for dozens of other officials in the expansion of the campaign focused on Istanbul’s popular mayor, which was imprisoned after the challenge of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as the highest position in the country.

The government news agency said that on Saturday, the police raided the municipal offices and arrested three municipal mayors in Istanbul, as well as the former legislator from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). Two presidents of the Republican Party in the southern province were also arrested from Adana. Anaduolo said that in total, 30 people were seized.

Erdogan accused the Istanbul municipality of operating a “criminal organization” after accusing the mayor of Ikram Imamoglu of corruption and terrorism in March. Emamoglu denies these allegations, saying that Erdogan is “armed with the judiciary” to cancel the challenges facing his 22 -year -old rule.

The arrest of Eamoglu has sparked the biggest anti -government protests for more than a decade, as supporters of Mayor Erdogan accused tyranny. Opinion polls show that 53 -year -old Eamoglu will invade Erdogan in a presidency as a resentment of the government administration.

The arrest of non -advanced investors, forcing the central bank to spend an estimated $ 50 billion of its reserves to install a liran, which is still trading at its lowest historical levels. The country’s standard stock index has been 17 percent of its value since Eamoglo prison.

The disturbances forced the central bank to raise the standard interest rate to 46 percent to tame the inflation of consumer prices, which works at an annual rate of 38 percent. A mixture of high interest rates and inflation led to the suffocation of Türkiye’s economy of $ 1.3 trillion, as the data issued on Friday showed that it expanded by 2 percent in the first quarter, below the expectations of analysts.

The campaign has been criticized from the Western allies of Türkiye. However, Nacho Sánchez Amor, the European Parliamentary Rapporteur in Türkiye, visited Emamoglu in prison on Friday. Publish a message on X, and called on Türkiye to respect the rule of law and its free ̇mamoğlu.

Hundreds of Istanbul municipal officials and other Chp figures have been imprisoned in successive operations since March. The government said that the arrests were not political motives and showed that no one was above the law.

CHP chair Ozgur Ozel The party said that the Istanbul legislators and local officials have called on the emergency meeting for the Istanbul project and local officials to discuss how to respond to the latest arrests.