Turkish police detain opposition mayor over alleged collusion, NTV says

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ANKARA (Reuters) -Turkish police on Thursday detained an Istanbul district mayor from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), along with 20 others, over alleged collusive tendering, broadcaster NTV reported, amid a widening government crackdown on opposition figures.

An Istanbul prosecutor ordered the detention of Beykoz Mayor Alaattin Koseler and three others over the alleged collusion, as well as 17 others for establishing, joining, and aiding an organisation with criminal intent, according to NTV.

The state-owned Anadolu news agency had said on Tuesday that prosecutors had launched an investigation into three concerts by the Beykoz Municipality last year over irregularities, and added that the municipality’s cultural and social matters representative was detained as part of the probe.

The move is the latest in a wave of arrests, detentions, and investigations carried out by authorities in recent months into opposition politicians, mayors and journalists. Critics say the crackdown aims to silence the opposition and weaken President Tayyip Erdogan’s rivals’ electoral prospects.

Earlier this month, the crackdown expanded to the country’s top business group, after two of its executives criticised the legal measures, prompting Erdogan to accuse them of meddling in politics.

The government dismisses the accusations that the moves are aimed at muzzling dissent and says the judiciary is independent.

CHP leader Ozgur Ozel said the crackdown was a manifestation of the government’s concern that it would lose power at the next elections, after suffering defeats in the country’s major cities in local elections last year.

“The detention… in the crack of dawn is nothing more than an attempt to go against the votes, preferences of the people through the hands of the judiciary, which you have turned into an apparatus of revenge,” Ozel said on X, adding the “order of fear” created by the government would not exhaust his party.

(Reporting by Tuvan Gumrukcu; Editing by Lincoln Feast)