Politics
Probe finds Istanbul district mayor cut illegal deals under Imamoğlu orders
Turkish prosecutors said Tuesday in a new indictment that irregular municipal contracts were awarded under direct orders from Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, implicating a Beyoğlu district mayor and six other suspects in an expanding corruption probe.
The indictment, prepared by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, targets former Beyoğlu Mayor Inan Güney, a member of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), and six others on charges of aiding a criminal organization and defrauding public institutions. Prosecutors are seeking prison terms ranging from nine years and eight months to 31 years and eight months.
At the center of the case are allegations that contested tenders and direct contracts were systematically directed to a firm known as 3K through instructions attributed to Imamoğlu and carried out via alleged network member Kağan Sürmegöz. The activities are said to have taken place during Güney’s tenure as general manager of BELTAŞ and later as Beyoğlu mayor.
According to the indictment, Güney maintained an unofficial partnership in 3K, a company run by defendants Serkan Öztürk and Rauf Cem Istıranca. Prosecutors allege that Güney used his municipal authority to steer work to the company, bypassing proper procedures.
Testimony cited in the case file suggests that profits from the allegedly irregular deals were distributed in cash. Investigators say Istıranca acknowledged making regular payments tied to the contracts, while Öztürk confirmed receiving funds. The indictment also references witness statements indicating Güney’s informal role in the company was widely known within the outdoor advertising sector.
Prosecutors further argue that proceeds from the scheme were funneled within what they describe as the “Imamoğlu profit-driven criminal organization,” reinforcing claims of coordinated misconduct tied to opposition-run municipalities.
Güney and two other suspects are currently in pretrial detention, while four others are being tried without detention.
Prosecutors have requested that the case be merged with the sprawling corruption trial involving what they call the “Imamoğlu-led criminal organization.” The Istanbul 40th High Criminal Court is now reviewing the filing.
Imamoğlu was arrested on March 19 last year on a string of corruption charges, including bribery, tender rigging and money laundering. Held in pretrial detention ever since, prosecutors want him jailed for up to 2,430 years. The 107 defendants, including Imamoğlu, began testifying in custody on March 9. After that, the other 300 defendants will be called to testify.
The trial is being heard every weekday except Friday, with the proceedings from Monday running until 10 p.m. (7 p.m. GMT), reporters at the scene said.
Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan intensified diplomatic efforts Monday, holding separate calls with his Egyptian, Norwegian and Pakistani counterparts to coordinate international pressure to halt the war involving Iran, Turkish diplomatic sources said.
Fidan’s conversations with Egypt’s Badr Abdelatty and Norway’s Espen Barth Eide focused on efforts aimed at stopping the Iranian war, the sources said.
In another phone call with Pakistan’s Ishaq Dar, the two ministers exchanged views on the latest situation in the war, the sources added.
Türkiye, Pakistan and Egypt passed messages between Washington and Tehran over the past two days to mediate talks, U.S.-based Axios reported Monday, citing an American source.
Türkiye’s top diplomat was also engaged in phone diplomacy Sunday with his counterparts across the world, days after he joined a meeting of top diplomats of the Gulf countries on the conflict, which spilled over to the entire region.
Regional escalation has continued to flare since the U.S. and Israel launched a joint offensive on Iran on Feb. 28, killing over 1,300 people, including then-Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.
Tehran has retaliated with drone and missile strikes targeting Israel, along with Jordan, Iraq, and Gulf countries hosting U.S. military assets, causing casualties and damage to infrastructure while disrupting global markets and aviation.
Türkiye, a neighbor of Iran and a NATO ally of the United States, has been keen on defusing the conflict.
A group of members of the U.S.-backed terrorist group YPG, which relented to a deal with Damascus in January, will undergo training at a military college in the Syrian capital as part of the agreement. The news website Rudaw reported on Monday that 28 members of the group would leave for Damascus within three days. It is the first time that this section of the comprehensive agreement will be implemented.
The post-Baathist administration in Damascus has moved against the YPG when the latter reneged on an earlier deal for integration into the Syrian army. On Jan. 16, the Syrian army launched an offensive against YPG-controlled areas in northeastern Syria. After days of the offensive, the YPG consented to sign a new deal with Damascus on integrating both “administrative” and “military” structures of the YPG to post-Assad Syria. The terrorist group agreed that Syrian security forces would be deployed in Hassakeh and Qamishli, two key areas occupied by the YPG.
The deal also stipulated a faster integration of armed members of the YPG into Syrian security forces and the creation of a division consisting of three brigades of the YPG. A source speaking to Rudaw said 18 “officers” will join the training from Jazira and 10 others were deployed in Ayn al-Arab, also known as Kobani. After completing their training, which will continue for one year, they are expected to command brigades as agreed upon in the January agreement. More YPG members will be trained for integration, Rudaw reported.
The YPG, the Syrian wing of the terrorist group PKK, neither complied with Türkiye’s terror-free initiative for disarmament of the PKK, nor with a March 2025 deal for integration with the Syrian security forces. Türkiye is a major supporter of post-Assad Syria and views the YPG as a threat to its own national security. Ankara has hinted that it may resort to a military option in Syria as it did in the past to thwart the YPG’s ambitions, but repeatedly called for dialogue to resolve the dispute between the YPG and Damascus.
Security forces detained 170 people in Istanbul and other cities for propaganda for the terrorist group PKK, authorities announced on Tuesday.
The Turkish National Police said the suspects were apprehended in operations before and after Nevruz celebrations. The celebrations were organized by groups associated with the PKK, including the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party). However, the events over the weekend became a show of force for supporters of the terrorist group. Although Nevruz is a festival commonly observed in the Turkic world to welcome the spring, the PKK in the past hijacked the celebrations for its own propaganda.
Police said operations held in Aydın, Batman, Gaziantep, Istanbul, Izmir, Kocaeli, Mardin, Şanlıurfa and Van between March 17 and March 22 led to the capture of 72 suspects charged with violation of public assembly laws and propaganda for a terrorist group. On March 24, operations were carried out in Istanbul, Diyarbakır, Izmir, Şanlıurfa, Antalya and Mardin to detain 98 suspects.
The PKK is in the process of disarmament. The terror-free Türkiye initiative launched by government ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli in 2024 eventually led to the group’s jailed ringleader, Abdullah Öcalan, to call on the PKK to lay down arms and dissolve itself. The PKK consented to disarmament last year, and its disarmament is currently monitored by Turkish intelligence. Türkiye plans to enact laws to facilitate the process, including lenient sentences for the members. A parliamentary committee has recently wrapped up work on a draft report that will serve as a guide to Parliament to enact those laws or amend the existing regulations. Still, the matter is sensitive for the public due to the PKK’s notorious record of killing thousands of civilians and security officers since the 1980s. Images of pro-PKK groups carrying banners containing terrorist propaganda and a speech by a PKK member convicted of a terrorist attack in 1991 and released last year during a Nevruz event, stirred up outrage among social media users.
Turkish police detained 25 suspects in an operation targeting the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) in Istanbul, authorities announced Tuesday, as part of an ongoing crackdown on the network accused of orchestrating the 2016 failed coup.
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said the suspects were identified through an investigation into alleged use of the encrypted messaging app ByLock, which authorities consider a key communication tool of the group.
Among those detained are seven active public employees and four dismissed from public service.
Investigators also found that some suspects had records of so-called payphone contacts, had previously stayed in properties linked to the terrorist group, held accounts at Bank Asya or were registered with companies affiliated with the group, officials said.
All 25 suspects were taken into custody during coordinated raids carried out by Istanbul police.
In a separate operation on Monday, authorities in Kayseri captured a fugitive former noncommissioned officer sentenced to six years and three months in prison for FETÖ membership. He was later transferred to prison following processing.
The terrorist group orchestrated the defeated coup of July 15, 2016, in Türkiye, in which 252 people were killed, and 2,734 were wounded. Ankara also accuses FETÖ of being behind a long-running campaign to overthrow the state through the infiltration of Turkish institutions, particularly the military, police and judiciary.
Türkiye has targeted its active members and sleeper cells nonstop, and its influence has been much reduced since 2016.
Vice President Cevdet Yılmaz, government ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chair Özgür Özel, ministers, dignitaries and a large crowd attended the funeral prayers on Monday for two Turkish technical personnel who were killed during a helicopter crash in Qatar on Saturday.
Türkiye revealed on Sunday that Maj. Sinan Taştekin, as well as Süleyman Cemre Kahraman and Ismail Enes Can, technicians working for Turkish defense giant ASELSAN, were killed in the crash, along with four Qatari officers, identified as Capt. Mubarak Salem Daway al-Marri, Sgt. Fahad Hadi Ghanem al-Khayarin, Cpl. Mohammed Maher Mohammed and Capt. Saeed Nasser Sameekh. The helicopter operated by the Qatari army was on a training mission as part of the Qatar-Türkiye Joint Forces Command. The crash is attributed to a technical malfunction.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Sunday expressed deep sorrow over the crash.
“I learned with great sorrow the news that our Turkish Armed Forces personnel, our ASELSAN staff and members of the Qatari Armed Forces were martyred in the helicopter crash that occurred in Qatar,” Erdoğan said in a statement shared on social media.
The Turkish leader offered prayers and condolences for those who died in the tragic accident.
Erdoğan also expressed sympathy to both nations, saying: “My condolences to our country, our nation and the people of Qatar.”
A separate funeral will be held on Tuesday for Taştekin, who will be buried in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC), where his wife lives.
Gulf countries, along with Iraq, Jordan and Syria, offered their condolences Sunday to Türkiye and Qatar over the helicopter crash. In separate statements on the U.S. social media company X’s platform, the foreign ministries of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan and Syria extended their condolences to the two nations and expressed their solidarity.
The incident came at a time when hostilities in the region have escalated since U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran began on Feb. 28, with Iran retaliating with repeated drone and missile strikes targeting Israel and Gulf countries hosting U.S. military assets.
Türkiye and Qatar are among the closest allies in the wider region and Qatar-Türkiye Joint Forces Command is Türkiye’s first permanent military base abroad. The base is mainly used for military exercises, training and logistics support. Turkish media outlets have reported earlier that some 3,000 Turkish troops were stationed at the base, which was opened in 2017 and underwent expansion in 2019.
Two countries stepped up their military cooperation in 2011, after a landmark deal on defense industries, which was followed by the sale of Türkiye’s globally-renowned Bayraktar drones to the Gulf country. Indeed, the Bayraktars became the first unmanned aerial vehicles commissioned by the Qatari army. Mutual visits of Turkish and Qatari leaders further cemented cooperation and in 2014, the two countries signed a new military cooperation deal for the deployment of Qatari troops in Türkiye and vice versa, during a visit by Qatar’s Emir Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. In 2015 and 2016, Türkiye and Qatar signed additional protocols for joint military exercises and training of military personnel. By 2017, Türkiye began deployment of troops in Qatar while major Turkish defense contractor Havelsan completed the sale of helicopter simulators to Qatar.
Athens will likely concern neighboring Türkiye, a former foe seeking normalization of ties, with its approval of a new defense system.
Greece’s security council, KYSEA, approved on Monday the purchase of a 3-billion euro ($3.48-billion) multilayer air and drone defence system and the upgrade of 38 F-16 fighter jets, the country’s defense minister said on Monday. The total cost for the two projects, which were approved by a Greek parliamentary committee earlier in the month, was estimated at about 4 billion euros.
Greece is already in talks with Israel to provide a big part of the missile systems for its air and drone defense dome, called “Achilles Shield.” “KYSEA also approved the upgrade of four MEKO 200 frigates and a maintenance agreement for C29J military transport aircraft,” said Defense Minister Nikos Dendias.
The former Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis has sharply criticized Greece’s deepening ties with Israel and the United States, accusing the government of undermining national sovereignty and becoming overly dependent on foreign powers.
In remarks to Turkish daily Hurriyet, Varoufakis said Greece had effectively “become a satellite of Israel,” arguing that successive governments had backed policies that harmed national interests. “We have lost our independence. We are in the clutches not only of the U.S., but also of Israel,” he said.
Growing Israeli-Greek ties may harm Türkiye’s rapprochement with Greece after decades of hostilities. Türkiye is a major critic of Israel over its genocidal policy in Gaza and is wary of the Netanyahu administration’s expansionism across the region. As for Greece, Türkiye seeks common ground to improve ties, although the rapid pace of armament of Athens is a source of concern. Israel has emerged as a major arms supplier for both Athens and the Greek Cypriot administration, providing various types of advanced missiles, drones and electronic warfare systems.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan hosted Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in February for a warm meeting. Back then, Erdoğan said Türkiye and Greece remain committed to strengthening dialogue and cooperation as both neighbors pursue a more stable phase in bilateral ties, noting that issues are solvable.
Speaking at a joint news conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, Erdoğan noted that the two sides must keep communication channels open “as neighboring allies are committed to cooperation.”
Both governments say they want to leave behind years of strained ties and focus on a positive agenda. In January, diplomats met in Athens to advance this track, as the neighbors work to ease friction over contested maritime boundaries and airspace in the Aegean. Tensions have flared intermittently in recent years between the historic rivals, who remain divided over where their continental shelves begin and end in the Aegean, an area believed to hold significant energy potential and linked to disputes over airspace and overflights.
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