Il Nuovo Postiglione - Mayor of Turkish opposition stronghold defects to Erdogan party

Mayor Cemil Tugay's decision to join the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development Party (AKP) was announced by Erdogan at a party meeting in Ankara where he personally welcomed the mayor in a party-like atmosphere broadcast live on TV.

"Dear AKP family, I salute all of you on this precious day... We're setting out to get Izmir back on its feet," said Tugay, who has led the city for more than two years as Erdogan pinned a party badge onto his lapel.

The scene sparked anger and disgust on the streets of Izmir, a secular resort city of 4.5 million residents on Turkey's Aegean coast.

"If I were his mother, I wouldn't be able to show my face in public. His wife should divorce him. A person needs to have a backbone," said 52-year-old Kadir Ozturk, deriding Tugay's insistence in January that he would never defect or his mum would disown him and his wife leave him.

"Selling oneself and stealing votes is no different from theft," snorted Ferhat Kasaba, 56, who runs an insurance company.

"Those who were elected with the free will of the public who then resign and move to another party are deceiving the very people who voted for them."

There were also several pointed comments about Tugay's training as a plastic surgeon.

"He should operate on his own face and change it because he won't be able to walk around the streets of Izmir with the one he's got," said Ali Mahir Basarir, an MP with the main opposition Yeni Parti.

As protesters prepared to gather in the city centre, police barricaded off Cumhurriyet Square and several other of Izmir's main public squares, AFP correspondents said.

- 'Disregarding the people's will' -

Taking control of the mayorship of Izmir, which has been governed by opposition social democrats since 1999, is a major coup for Erdogan.

But although it helps AKP expand its influence in Izmir, it doesn't mean the party now has control over the city's municipal council, which remains dominated by the opposition.

Around a dozen cultural figures resigned in protest, among them the artistic director of Izmir's theatres, nine from the municipal theatre advisory board and a poet who runs the Izmir International Literature Festival, BirGun newspaper said.

"We do not accept the decision of Izmir Mayor Cemil Tugay, which disregards the will of the people of İzmir," the theatre board said.

The defection comes as Turkey's opposition battles an increasingly intense crackdown, with a barrage of arrests and lawsuits targeting its mayors and elected officials widely seen as political.

It began about six months after the CHP -- at the time the main opposition force -- won a resounding victory in the March 2024 local elections, trouncing the AKP.

Since then, six of its provincial mayors have been arrested, including Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, and 29 of its district mayors, 13 of them in Istanbul, according to the independent Diken news website.

There have also been rising defections to AKP, with at least 17 opposition mayors switching, Medyascope website said last week ahead of Tugay's defection.

- 'Switching out of fear' -

Political analyst Berk Esen said Tugay's defection was a "significant development" in a city that had been the opposition's biggest stronghold for nearly three decades.

"This is a continuation of AKP's strategy to reverse its major defeat in the 2024 local elections through force and repression," he told AFP.

Opposition mayors were not changing ranks because they had changed their ideology or been successfully won over by the ruling party, many were doing it "out of fear", Esen said.

"We've had tens of opposition mayors arrested, many others threatened. Some are facing the threat of prosecution, so against the backdrop of increasing judicial repression, going back nearly two years, some opposition mayors have decided to change ranks.

"And Cemil Tugay is a clear example of that," the analyst added.

Tugay took office as mayor in April 2024 but in June this year he resigned from CHP after its leadership was replaced in a controversial court ruling.

Forced out of the party he had led for two-and-a-half years, Ozgur Ozel left with 90 lawmakers and set up the Yeni Parti, effectively replacing the CHP as Turkey's main opposition.

But Tugay didn't follow Ozel, saying he would remain independent, sparking rumours he was planning to defect.

Within Izmir's 184-member city council, Yeni Parti is the largest grouping with 91 seats, followed by AKP with 38 and CHP with 35. Tugay's defection increases AKP to 39 seats.

M.Costa--INP