The “Istanbul with Its Every Neighborhood” event brought together the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) chair, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, with the party’s staff in Türkiye’s most populated city on Sunday.
Istanbul-born president who rose to prominence as the city’s mayor in the 1990s, hit out at the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) for defending former Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu and others detained on charges of corruption and vowed that they would not abandon Istanbul to its fate after the mayor was suspended.
The AK Party, which long dominated Istanbul politics with election victories both in the metropolitan municipality and districts, suffered losses in the latest election, particularly after a second win by Imamoğlu, who first won the seat in 2019. The party now seeks to win the city back and has launched a drive to revive its traditional campaigning via neighborhood organizations. The party’s neighborhood offices have helped it win the hearts even in remote corners of the city, something championed by Erdoğan.
The president said in his address to the event that the AK Party should work more and should continue its politics “siding with people who have no one but Allah on their side, not the elites.”
“We will show we are different. We are engaged in politics not for our own ambitions but for the good of the people. We will never turn our backs on the nation,” he said.
He then went on to criticize Imamoğlu and the CHP, without openly naming the mayor. “If you don’t work for the nation, you are either a rantçı (profiteer) or a bantçı (the one who uses tape to conceal something),” to the applause of the audience. “Bantçı” in this case refers to a bodyguard of Imamoğlu who was captured in footage as he put tape on security cameras before Imamoğlu’s secretive meeting at a hotel with fellow bureaucrats of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB). Media outlets reported that the footage emerged in the investigation into the former mayor’s alleged wrongdoings, raising suspicions about the nature of the meeting, which was followed and preceded by more at the same hotel. Some reports claimed that the meeting and others were the venue of discussions on how to share illegal profits Imamoğlu and others gained through graft, from rigging public tenders to bribery in exchange for building permits.
“You see what happened to profiteers, you see what state they drove Istanbul into. We witnessed how they terrorized squares. They do not tolerate anyone other than themselves. They try to bully anyone not agreeing with them, they attack anyone not siding with thieves,” Erdoğan said. The CHP held pro-Imamoğlu rallies, claiming the innocence of the mayor, after Imamoğlu’s arrest in March. Rallies in Istanbul and other cities escalated into violent riots. The CHP supporters also launched social media campaigns against celebrities not endorsing the rallies, while the party’s leader, Özgür Özel, called for a boycott of companies he accused of serving the government’s interests, as well as against broadcasters not broadcasting the rallies live.
The president stated that they witnessed a new act of corruption surfacing “almost every day” in the investigation into what he called a criminal organization. “You see how they looted Istanbul’s resources. (Authorities) reveal tentacles of an octopus extending from Istanbul to other cities, to abroad. Their own friends confess how they extorted money and received bribes,” Erdoğan said.
Ertan Yıldız, a top IBB bureaucrat, has recently collaborated with authorities and unveiled a scheme of tender rigging and bribes organized by Imamoğlu and his associates at the municipality. On Friday, authorities rounded up dozens more people, including IBB officials, on charges of corruption linked to Imamoğlu and others detained in the first wave of operations against the municipality in March.
“Their former partners in crime speak about cash carried by suitcases, about a mob order established in Istanbul. But (the CHP) has no shame. They are supposed to apologize to the people of Istanbul they betrayed but instead, they threaten judges and prosecutors and journalists,” Erdoğan said, referring to past remarks by Özel and other top names of the CHP who threatened judiciary members with being tried in the future for the investigation into Imamoğlu’s alleged wrongdoings.
“Their friends who confess are accused of defaming (detained municipal officials). Özgür Özel is acting like a messenger for a criminal organization, not as a main opposition leader. It is worrying. It is worrying to see this sorry state the CHP was pushed to,” Erdoğan said.
“You can’t remove this stain of corruption. You can’t escape being held accountable. It is the Turkish judiciary’s job to stop hands from stealing from public funds. We will not turn a blind eye to this banditry. Nor will we leave our Istanbul to its fate,” Erdoğan added.
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