Turkey’s opposition-controlled Izmir mayor Cemil Tugay joins President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party (AKP), handing the party control of a city it has never won at the ballot box. Multiple outlets report Tugay formally joined the AKP on Wednesday in Ankara, where Erdogan publicly welcomed him at an event.
Tugay, elected in 2024 as a candidate of the centre-left Republican People’s Party (CHP), had quit the CHP in June before completing the switch. The move ends 27 years of centre-left rule in Izmir, which is described as a long-standing secular and opposition stronghold and is Turkey’s third-largest city. Bloomberg and Reuters also frame the defection as part of a broader political shift amid a crackdown on opposition mayors, with many jailed.
Across coverage, the emphasis differs slightly: some focus on the symbolic impact for the AKP in a historically CHP-run city, while others highlight the surrounding context of legal pressure and detention affecting opposition local officials.
