Izmir's Mayor Joined Erdogan's Party Without an Election
Cemil Tugay, the mayor of Izmir, joined Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on Oct. 7, 2026. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the switch at an AKP parliamentary group meeting in Ankara, welcomed Tugay to the party and gave him a party pin. The Guardian
The public step followed a private signal. Erdogan received Tugay at the Presidential Complex on Sept. 30, according to an AKP statement. AKP A week later, the parliamentary meeting made the move formal and visible. The mayor's office in Turkey's third city changed parties without an election.
Tugay was elected as the candidate of the centre-left Republican People's Party (CHP) in the March 2024 local elections. The CHP is the main opposition party. The AKP is Erdogan's ruling party. The CHP won nationally in those elections. In Izmir, a city of 4.5 million on the Aegean coast, Tugay took 49% against 37% for the AKP candidate. Reuters The margin was 314,000 votes, and the CHP carried 28 of Izmir's 30 districts. Euronews He took office in April 2024. Izmir had been governed by social democrats since 1999.
His exit from the CHP came in stages. In January, Tugay said he would never switch to the AKP. He resigned from the CHP in June after its leadership was replaced in a controversial court ruling. He then sat outside his elected party for more than three months before joining the AKP in October.
The council arithmetic did not change. Opposition parties retain a majority on Izmir city council despite the defection. The mayor now belongs to the ruling party. The council majority does not.
Tugay is not an isolated case. At least 17 opposition mayors had joined the AKP before his move, according to Medyascope. At the same time, six CHP provincial mayors, including Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, and 29 CHP district mayors have been arrested, according to figures from Diken. Former CHP leader Ozgur Ozel has founded the Yeni party, taking 90 lawmakers with him.
The broader context here is a reordering of the March 2024 opposition mandate. That election gave the CHP control of major cities and a claim to national momentum. The later chain of arrests, party switching and judicial action over party leadership has fragmented that mandate. Izmir matters in that chain because the margin was wide and social-democratic continuity was long. A mayor elected with 49% has shifted executive power while legislative control and electoral history stay intact.
Looking at what this means for running the city, Izmir now enters divided municipal government, a little like a manager from one team answering to a board chosen by another. A ruling-party mayor will operate opposite an opposition-majority council. That setup will test budget approval, appointments and planning authority. It will test voter alignment, since the 2024 vote for Tugay was cast under a CHP label. And the split between the CHP and Yeni will test whether opposition voters, lawmakers and local cadres coordinate or compete. None of those outcomes were settled by the pin ceremony in Ankara.
