Thousands rally in Istanbul against arrest of opposition Uskudar Mayor

Thousands gathered at a protest rally of the opposition New Party (Yeni Parti) in Istanbul's Uskudar residential district on Saturday evening, the BirGun daily reported. They protested against the arrest of Uskudar Mayor Sinem Dedetas of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the election of Ziya Gultekin from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) as acting mayor.

The rally took place in Uskudar’s main square, where people carrying banners and chanting slogans gathered from many other parts of Istanbul, CE Report quotes BTA.

At the protest, New Party leader Ozgur Ozel expressed full solidarity with the imprisoned opposition mayors, including Dedetas and the ousted mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu.

“Some people make decisions not according to the will of the people, but according to their own desires and interests; some decide to control the ballot boxes and to alter the decision made at the polls through various means of coercion,” said Ozel.

Addressing President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Ozel said:

“To those who view the upcoming elections as a crisis and are praying to overcome it, I say: you will not be able to overcome these elections until you address the hunger of pensioners.”

He accused Istanbul Governor Davut Gul of contributing, through the orders he issued, to the manipulation of the process for electing an acting mayor of Uskudar in favor of the ruling party.

“First, they slandered Sinem Dedetas. Then we won the election for acting mayor. But they went to court and had the election in Uskudar annulled, and they decided to hold new elections so they could put the Justice and Development Party’s candidate in the mayor’s office. The Istanbul Governor is, in fact, a government official who works for the Justice and Development Party. The day will come when the tables will turn and they will be held accountable,” said Ozel.

Ozel also said that the New Party would continue its “resistance movement” uninterrupted until the elections.

Ozel, who is a former CHP chairman, founded New Party in July along with 90 other former CHP members after a court on May 21 annulled the CHP’s 38th congress and removed him from the chairmanship, reinstating former leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu.

The municipality of Uskudar has a population of over half a million and is the largest on the Asian side of Istanbul. Dedetas' victory in the 2024 local elections on the opposition CHP's ticket put an end to nearly 20 years of the municipality being governed by the Justice and Development Party.

On July 31, 2026, Dedetas was arrested as part of an investigation into corruption and irregularities in tenders and the issuance of building permits. Initially, Sibel Tan Cetinkaya of the CHP was elected acting mayor, but an administrative court in Istanbul subsequently overturned her appointment on the grounds that irregularities had occurred during the vote. The second elections took place on September 8; in the meantime, four municipal councillors from the CHP defected to the Justice and Development Party, causing the opposition to lose its majority in the Uskudar Municipal Council, and ultimately, Ziya Gultekin of the ruling Justice and Development Party was elected acting mayor.

Photo: Chat GPT