Izmir Mayor Cemil Tugay has formally joined President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), delivering the government a major symbolic breakthrough in
Turkey’s third-largest city and a longstanding centre of secular opposition politics.
Tugay was elected mayor in March 2024 on the ticket of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), securing about 49% of the vote, compared with 37% for the AK Party candidate. He resigned from the CHP in June and subsequently continued to serve as an independent mayor before making his move into Erdogan’s party.
His membership was announced at a ceremony in Ankara attended by Erdogan, turning a political shift that had been rumoured for weeks into a formal realignment. Tugay had met Erdogan at the Presidential Complex on September 30, where the two discussed Izmir’s priorities and development projects.
The transfer is particularly significant because Izmir has long been one of the CHP’s strongest political bases. The western coastal city is widely associated with Turkey’s secular, social-democratic tradition and has never elected an AK Party mayor. Tugay’s defection therefore gives Erdogan’s party control of the mayoralty without winning it through a municipal election.
The move also comes at a politically sensitive moment for Turkey’s opposition. The CHP has faced growing pressure from the authorities, while a number of opposition mayors have been arrested, prosecuted or suspended in corruption-related cases. Opposition leaders have repeatedly argued that the legal proceedings are being used to weaken their political movement, allegations rejected by the government.
Tugay’s decision follows a broader pattern of political movement away from the CHP. Other opposition politicians and mayors have also resigned from the party or subsequently joined the AK Party amid an increasingly polarised political environment.
For Erdogan, the Izmir mayor’s switch represents more than the addition of another senior politician to the AK Party. It provides the governing party with a foothold in one of the country’s most symbolically important opposition cities and could strengthen its efforts to expand its influence along Turkey’s traditionally secular western coastline.
The CHP has reacted angrily. Party leader Özgür Özel criticised the move, arguing that the AK Party had never succeeded in winning Izmir at the ballot box. Photo by Horrificdetective, Wikimedia commons.
