Three mayors arrested in southern Turkiye as part of crackdown on opposition
Istanbul (AP): The mayors of three major cities in southern Turkiye were arrested on Saturday, state-run media reported, joining a growing list of opposition figures detained since the mayor of Istanbul was imprisoned in March.
Abdurrahman Tutdere, the mayor of Adiyaman, and Zeydan Karalar, who heads Adana municipality, were detained in early morning raids, according to Anadolu Agency. Both are members of the main opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP.
The CHP mayor of Antalya, Muhittin Bocek, was arrested with two other suspects in a separate bribery investigation by the Antalya Chief Public Prosecutor's Office, Anadolu reported.
Karalar was arrested in Istanbul and Tutdere was arrested in the capital, Ankara, where he has a home. Tutdere posted on X that he was being taken to Istanbul.
Ten people, including Karalar and Tutdere, were arrested as part of an investigation by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office into allegations involving organised crime, bribery and bid-rigging.
Details of the charges against them were not immediately released by prosecutors but the operation follows the arrests of scores of officials from municipalities controlled by the CHP in recent months.
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, widely considered the main challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's 22-year rule, was jailed four months ago over corruption allegations.
The former CHP mayor of Izmir, Turkiye's third-largest city, and 137 municipal officials were detained earlier this week as part of an investigation into alleged tender-rigging and fraud. On Friday, ex-mayor Tunc Soyer and 59 others were jailed pending trial in what Soyer's lawyer described as “a clearly unjust, unlawful and politically motivated decision”.
Also Friday, it was reported by state-run media that the CHP mayor of Manavgat, a Mediterranean resort city in Antalya province, and 34 others were detained over alleged corruption.
CHP officials have faced waves of arrests this year that many consider aimed at neutralising Turkiye's main opposition party. The government insists prosecutors and the judiciary act independently but the arrest of Istanbul's Imamoglu led to the largest street protests Turkiye has seen in more than a decade.
Imamoglu was officially nominated as his party's presidential candidate following his imprisonment. Turkiye's next election is due in 2028 but could come sooner.
The crackdown comes a year after the CHP made significant gains in local elections. Adiyaman, which was severely affected by the 2023 earthquake, was among several cities previously considered strongholds for Erdogan to fall to the opposition.
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NATO, others turn down US call for help in Hormuz: Trump
Washington (PTI): President Donald Trump on Tuesday said NATO and most of US' other allies have rejected his calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz as the war with Iran entered the third week.
In a social media post, Trump asserted that Iran’s military has been “decimated” and he no longer felt the need for assistance from NATO countries or anyone else.
Last week, Trump had sought help from European nations and others who depend on oil supplies transiting from the Hormuz Strait to safeguard the critical waterway.
“The United States has been informed by most of our NATO “Allies” that they don’t want to get involved with our Military Operation against the Terrorist Regime of Iran, in the Middle East, this, despite the fact that almost every Country strongly agreed with what we are doing, and that Iran cannot, in any way, shape, or form, be allowed to have a Nuclear Weapon,” the US President said in a post on Truth Social.
Iran's attacks on Gulf nations and its grip on the Strait of Hormuz, through which a fifth of the world's oil is transported, have sparked increasing concerns of a global energy crisis and are unnerving the world economy.
“I am not surprised by their action, however, because I always considered NATO, where we spend Hundreds of Billions of Dollars per year protecting these same Countries, to be a one-way street — We will protect them, but they will do nothing for us, in particular, in a time of need,” Trump said.
He said Australia, Japan and South Korea too have turned down his call for help.
“Fortunately, we have decimated Iran’s Military – Their Navy is gone, their Air Force is gone, their Anti-Aircraft and Radar is gone and perhaps, most importantly, their Leaders, at virtually every level, are gone, never to threaten us, our Middle Eastern Allies, or the World, again,” Trump said.
He said that given the scale of recent military successes, the US no longer "need" or desires assistance from NATO countries, adding that it never relied on such support in the first place.
Speaking as President of the United States, the "most powerful" country in the world, "we do not need" help from anyone, Trump said.
The West Asia conflict began on February 28 when the US-Israeli combine conducted airstrikes on Iran.
The Strait of Hormuz, the narrow waterway that connects the Persian Gulf to the open ocean, has effectively been shut following the US and Israel attack on Iran and Tehran's sweeping retaliation.
However, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said that from Tehran's "perspective", the strait is "open". "It is only closed to Iran's enemies, to those who carried out unjust aggression against our country and to their allies.”
Earlier in the day, a second Indian-flagged LPG tanker, Nanda Devi, reached the country after safely sailing from the war-hit Strait of Hormuz. On Monday, the first ship, Shivalik, reached Mundra port in Gujarat.
As of now, 22 Indian vessels remain on the west side and two on the east side of the strait.
Indian authorities are in constant touch with all the relevant stakeholders in the region to secure the safe passage of the remaining ships, officials said.
