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Chasiv Yar's fall in Donbas fighting opens the road to Sloviansk and Kramatorsk
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Turkish police forces launched a series of early-morning raids, detaining Sinem Dedetas, the mayor of Istanbul’s Uskudar district on the Anatolian side, the Istanbul Anadolu chief prosecutor’s office said on July 29.
The police swoop targeted 11 addresses across the city. Five other individuals were also detained. The detainees face charges of extortion, bribery and leading a criminal organisation.
Dedetas is a member of the Republican People’s Party (CHP). On July 24, it lost its standing as the country's main opposition party to New Party, a fresh party launched by former CHP leader Ozgur Ozel. Ozel was stripped of his place at the helm of the CHP by court order.
The Uskudar mayor is close to jailed Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who was detained in March last year at a time when it became clear he was set to step up his campaign to challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the presidency.
According to the statement released by the chief prosecutor’s office, the investigation stems from an anonymous tip-off alleging systematic corruption within Uskudar’s municipal administration and its city-owned subsidiary, Kent A.S.
Among those detained alongside the mayor were two deputies, as well as an architect, a municipal consultant and a private contractor. Police were continuing to search municipal offices and private residences.
The latest operation follows an initial wave of raids on Uskudar Municipality executed in April. They targeted administrative staff over irregularities in the awarding of permits.
Opposition figures frequently accuse Erdogan’s government of using the judiciary to hobble political rivals and re-establish control over key municipal budgets.
On July 20, Turkish police forces launched a series of coordinated dawn raids in Izmit, detaining 31 individuals including the city’s mayor Fatma Kaplan Hurriyet.
The operations against CHP-held municipalities started in November 2024, following the local elections held in March. The frequency of the operations since then has flucturated. The recent trend roughly shows one mayor per week is being detained.
On July 11, Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas said that the mayor of Cankaya district in the Turkish capital had become the 39th CHP mayor detained in the judicial operations targeting the party. Some of the mayors taken into custody have been released, while one was reinstated.
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