AKP Plans to 'Transfer' Dozens of Mayors from Opposition Parties

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The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has made a move to sign nearly 100 district and town mayors from opposition parties, Bülent Turan, the party's parliamentary group deputy chairperson, announced Saturday (January 11).

Five mayors from different parties will join the AKP every week, he said, remarking that the party will "grow as others fight each other."

The municipalities AKP plans to take over serve to around two-and-a-half million people but that there are no city municipalities among them "for now," BBC Turkish reported, citing a senior figure from the party.

There are a total of 1,316 district and town municipalities in Turkey, according to 2014 figures by the Union of Municipalities of Turkey. The AKP won around half of them in the March 2019 local elections, where it lost İstanbul and the capital Ankara to the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). The ruling party also holds 24 of the 81 city municipalities in the country.

In today's (January 14) parliamentary group meeting, five mayors will become members of the AKP in a badge pinning ceremony headed by President and AKP Chair Erdoğan, BBC Turkish said. Two of the mayors are currently independent and three are from the CHP, its ally İYİ (Good) Party and the Felicity Party (SP), a party that shares the same Islamic roots with the AKP.

The AKP will not attempt to sign mayors from its ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the official noted.

Luring mayors with money?

SP Chair Temel Karamollaoğlu claimed that the AKP lures mayors with money: "The mayor says, 'Sorry, but I have to do this. It embarrasses me but I have to. I can't pay the debt, it's hanging over me because of the previous municipality. The government says, 'Come to my side, I will pay it'."

"This is really dishonor! And they boast about that. Is this how the country is governed? Is this called democracy? Is this called humanity?" Karamolladoğlu lashed out.

Turan responded to him in a tweet, saying that he "put away all values and become a tail for CHP and a wagon for HDP." He did not respond to the allegation that AKP convinces mayors by offering to pay debts of municipalities. (EKN/VK)