Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on October 7 affixed the lapel pin of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) to the jacket of defected Izmir mayor Cemil Tugay, who was elected two years ago as a candidate of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP).

Erdogan has thus gained the mayoralty of an opposition stronghold city that the AKP has never managed to win at the ballot box. The high-profile defection delivers yet another blow to what’s left of the so-called opposition in Turkey’s political system. With Erdogan’s chief political rival, Ekrem Imamoglu, incarcerated in an Istanbul prison amid court hearings on what his supporters say are trumped-up corruption charges designed to remove him from the political scene, ruling officials have stepped up a multi-pronged crackdown on opposition politicians and backers.

Last month, IntelliNews reported on how Erdogan’s party appear to be on the cusp of a move to take control of Istanbul City Hall.

Tugay was accompanied at the ceremony with Erdogan by his wife. She previously made headlines after Tugay said that she warned him she would move for a divorce if he ever joined the ruling party. Erdogan made a point of inviting her to the stage before “badging” her husband.

Tugay vowed in January that he would never cross the floor to join the AKP. He left the disintegrating CHP to become an independent mayor in June.

Izmir resident Kadir Ozturk, 52, was quoted by the Guardian as saying of Tugay: “If I were his mother, I wouldn’t be able to show my face in public. His wife should divorce him. A person needs a backbone.”

Though the Izmir mayoralty is now the AKP’s, opposition parties still hold most votes on the city council.

Port city Izmir, located on the Aegean coast, is Turkey’s third largest metropolis, with 4.5mn people. A historical economic crossroads, it opens up the Anatolian peninsula to maritime trade. Izmir is also notable for its role as the champion of the secular lifestyle in Turkey, an important distinction given the AKP’s  ideological roots in political Islam.

Some go to jail, some go to AKP

Just hours before the Tugay defection was given Erdogan’s public blessing, the interior ministry announced the suspension of five mayors following the formal arresting of the individuals pending trial. Mersin (metropole) mayor Vahap Secer, Eyupsultan (Istanbul district) mayor Mithat Bulent Ozmen, Atasehir (Istanbul district) mayor Murat Gunes, Yenisehir (Mersin district) mayor Abdullah Ozyigit and Mezitli (Mersin town) mayor Ahmet Serkan Tuncer have joined dozens of their political opposition fellows in prisons.

The dual strategy of pursuing prosecutions and political defections has systematically reshaped Turkey's local government landscape since the March 2024 local elections. So far, 108 mayors have defected to the AKP, according to data compiled by Emrah Ozcan, the presidential correspondent at pro-government daily Turkiye.

Thirty-seven of the mayors defected from the Republican People’s Party (CHP), 43 from Yeniden Refah (YRP) and 11 from Iyi Party. The total, established in just two years of the current political cycle, is roughly double the 50 party transfers recorded throughout the entire 2019-2024 cycle.

The exact number of jailed mayors is remains unknown. It is likely to have approached 50.