Turkey purges over 120 political opponents ahead of 2028 elections

With the 2028 elections looming in Turkey, President Recep Erdoğan might be clearing the path of political opposition.

In the early hours of July 1, police stormed Izmir city hall, detaining over 120 individuals, including senior opposition figures. The crackdown, according to The New Arab plus agencies, came just hours ahead of a high-profile rally in Istanbul marking 100 days since the jailing of Erdoğan’s most formidable rival, Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.

Officially, the arrests were tied to a corruption probe, though the timing suggests otherwise. The operation in Izmir, long a Republican People’s Party (CHP) bastion, is seen by many as the latest act in a broader strategy to suffocate dissent ahead of the 2028 presidential contest.

The move mirrors a similar purge in March when Istanbul saw its opposition leadership swept out in a nearly identical operation that culminated in the incarceration of İmamoğlu, Erdoğan’s most prominent political rival and the CHP’s de facto presidential candidate. That incident sparked the largest wave of street unrest in Turkey in over a decade—mass protests, 2,000 arrests, and a renewed sense of urgency across the opposition spectrum.

In total, the public prosecutor’s office issued warrants for 157 people. Those detained included senior political figures, including a former mayor, senior civil servants, and Şenol Aslanoğlu, CHP’s provincial chairman. The CHP deputy leader, Murat Bakan has condemned the arrests and the allegations tied to them. “These dawn arrests are not a legal need but are a clear political choice,” he wrote, saying that many of those detained were already under investigation.

He later posted on X that “If these people were summoned, they would have testified.”

Since the March arrests, the pressure on the CHP has only intensified. On June 30, an Ankara court began hearing a case against the party involving allegations of vote-buying at its 2023 leadership primary. If the allegations prevail, it could unset the party’s current leader, Özgür Özel, another rising threat in Erdoğan’s periphery.

Critics say the case is another politically motivated attempt to undermine democracy in line with the move against Imamoglu, which the party denounced as a “coup”.

As the police were preoccupied with rooting out potential political opposition, wildfires raged in the surrounding region, forcing over 45,000 people to evacuate. As a result, the state’s response to disaster relief remained scattered.

The New Arab