Turkey detains opposition mayor over affiliation to 2016 botched putsch

Turkey has arrested a mayor from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) over his alleged membership of a movement led by US-based opposition cleric Fethullah Gulen, who the Ankara government accuses of having masterminded the failed July 2016 coup attempt against President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The official Anadolu news agency reported that Ibrahim Burak Oguz, the mayor of the Aegean coastal town of Urla, was detained late on Monday for alleged ties to the network, which is referred to by Turkish law enforcement as the Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organization (FETO).

The CHP condemned Oguz’s arrest and denied the accusation of links to Gulen, saying the network had no “chance of surviving within the social-democratic political party.”

“We condemn the use of the justice (system) to remove those who were elected,” CHP provincial head, Deniz Yucel, said.

The 47-year-old Oguz, who was elected in local elections in March, is the first mayor from Turkey’s main opposition party to be arrested on terror charges.

At least 14 elected mayors belonging to Turkey’s pro-Kurdish party have previously been detained for alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militant group, which has been waging an insurgency for autonomy in Turkey’s largely-Kurdish southeast since 1984 and is deemed a terrorist organization by Turkey. 

Separately, Turkish authorities detained 171 people on suspicion of links to Gulen’s network in simultaneous raids in the capital Ankara.

Those detained are suspected of using encrypted messaging application ByLock, which the Turkish government claims to be the top communication tool among members of the Gulen movement.

SS