Protests in a major Turkish city after mayor defects to Erdogan's party

More than 1,000 people took to the streets of Izmir, Turkiye's third-largest city, on Wednesday after Mayor Cemil Tugay joined President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Erdogan announced the defection at a party meeting in Ankara that was broadcast live on television.

Police barricaded the city's main squares and deployed riot officers and at least four water cannon trucks. Officers repeatedly ordered the crowd to disperse and briefly chased a small group, but the protest ended peacefully. Demonstrators chanted "Tugay, resign!" and "Tugay, the traitor!", and some carried a coffin inscribed "Politically dead."

"This is a bad day for Izmir," said Melihat Aggul Ozdogan, 60. "Taking votes from the people then breaking away like this is irresponsible." Yasemin Koseer, 51, said: "We don't want a mayor we did not choose." Cagatay Guc, head of the Izmir branch of Yeni Parti, told the crowd: "You have been dismissed, Cemil Tugay, you are not the mayor."

Izmir, home to 4.5 million people on the Aegean coast, has been governed by opposition social democrats since 1999. Tugay won the mayoralty in April 2024 as the candidate of the Republican People's Party (CHP). He resigned from the CHP in June 2026 after a court ruling replaced the party's leadership, and at the time said he would remain independent.

The defection does not hand Erdogan's party control of the city. On Izmir's 184-seat council, Yeni Parti holds 91 seats, the CHP 35, and the AKP rises from 38 to 39 with Tugay. Yeni Parti was founded by Ozgur Ozel after he left the CHP, and it has effectively replaced the CHP as Turkiye's main opposition force.

About a dozen cultural figures resigned in protest, including the artistic director of Izmir's municipal theaters, nine members of the theater advisory board, and the poet who runs the Izmir International Literature Festival.

The move follows a broad campaign against opposition municipalities since the CHP decisively beat the AKP in the March 2024 local elections. Six CHP provincial mayors have been arrested, among them Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, along with 29 district mayors, 13 of them in Istanbul, according to the Diken news site. At least 17 opposition mayors have switched to the AKP, Medyascope reported on September 30.

Political analyst Berk Esen described Tugay's switch as part of the AKP's "strategy to reverse its major defeat in the 2024 local elections through force and repression," arguing that many mayors are changing sides "out of fear" of prosecution rather than out of conviction.