Pro-government outlet Haber7 reports charges against opposition-run Adalar municipality, as Ankara's crackdown on CHP districts widens
Turkish prosecutors have arrested 35 suspects, including the mayor of Istanbul's Adalar (Princes' Islands) district, over allegations that the municipality illegally extorted funds from a Greek Orthodox foundation legally exempt from municipal fees — in what critics say is the latest episode in a widening government campaign against opposition-controlled local administrations.
The allegations were first reported by Haber7, a pro-government online news outlet with close editorial ties to Turkey's ruling conservative establishment. Founded within the broader media ecosystem aligned with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's AKP-led government, Haber7 has been a consistent platform for coverage targeting municipalities governed by the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), and its reporting on this case follows a well-established pattern of such stories.
The Alleged Scheme
According to the investigation conducted by the Istanbul Anatolian Chief Public Prosecutor's Office — as reported by Haber7 — the Adalar municipality leadership is accused of demanding unlawful "occupancy fee" payments from religious institutions that are legally immune from such charges under Turkish law.
The primary target, according to the case file, was the Panagia Agiou Dimitri Profiti Ilia Greek Orthodox Church and School Foundation on Büyükada (Prinkipo), the largest of the Princes' Islands. The foundation's representative is alleged to have been pressured into paying approximately 3 million Turkish lira in fees that the institution was legally not required to pay.
Intercepted communications cited in the investigation file allegedly capture Deputy Mayor Hüseyin Yılmaz pressing Poridis to pay early, explaining the urgency to suspended Mayor Ali Ercan Akpolat in blunt terms: "I called Vasil abi, told him to come and pay the occupancy fee early — because the municipality needs cash right now."
In another intercepted exchange quoted by Haber7, Yılmaz describes collecting 1,680,000 lira in cash on 26 January 2026, then pressing for a further 810,000 lira. When Poridis reportedly sought to delay payment citing the rising euro exchange rate, Yılmaz is quoted as telling Akpolat: "He says the euro keeps going up… I told him, there's a need, that's why I'm making him pay early."
The Halki Seminary Reference
One of the more politically charged details in the Haber7 report concerns an alleged reference to the Halki (Heybeliada) Theological Seminary, the historic Greek Orthodox institution whose closure since 1971 has been a persistent irritant in Turkey-Greece and Turkey-EU relations. According to intercepted recordings cited in the case file, Akpolat allegedly asked his deputy: "There's nothing going on at the Seminary, is there?" — a line prosecutors appear to be presenting as evidence that other ecclesiastical properties were also under consideration.
Arrests and Operation
Following simultaneous raids on 90 addresses across four provinces centred on Istanbul, 42 suspects were detained. Of the 39 eventually referred to court, 35 were formally arrested and remanded in custody, including Akpolat and his two deputy mayors, Hüseyin Yılmaz and Fırat Durak. Four suspects were released under judicial supervision.
Akpolat had already been suspended from office by the Interior Ministry prior to the formal arrests — a measure the Turkish government has increasingly used against elected CHP mayors pending investigation.
A Tiny, Vulnerable Community
The case has drawn attention because of its target: Istanbul's Greek Orthodox community, one of the smallest and most historically significant minority populations in Turkey. From over 100,000 in the mid-twentieth century, the community has dwindled to fewer than 3,000 people, concentrated largely on the Princes' Islands and in Istanbul's Pera and Fener districts. Its institutions — churches, schools, and foundations — enjoy protected legal status under the 1923 Lausanne Treaty, including exemptions from certain municipal charges.
The Adalar municipality's islands have historically been home to a disproportionate share of what remains of the Greek Orthodox presence in Istanbul, making any allegation of pressure on community foundations particularly sensitive.
The Source and Its Context
It bears emphasis that the primary source of this report is Haber7, a digital news outlet operating under the Kanal 7 media group, which has longstanding ideological and commercial proximity to Turkey's ruling AKP and its allies. Haber7's coverage of opposition municipalities — particularly those governed by the CHP — forms a significant part of its political output and consistently frames such cases in terms of institutional corruption within the secular opposition.
Independent verification of the intercepted communications and the full prosecutorial case file has not been possible at this stage. The CHP and Akpolat's legal representatives had not issued a public response at the time of publication.
The Broader Crackdown: Opposition Mayors Behind Bars
The Adalar case is far from isolated. Turkey has witnessed a sustained and escalating legal offensive against CHP-governed municipalities since the party's sweeping victories in the March 2024 local elections, in which it captured Istanbul, Ankara, Izmir and dozens of other major cities.
The most prominent casualty has been Ekrem İmamoğlu, Istanbul's enormously popular mayor, who was arrested in March 2025 on charges of "insulting public officials" and alleged links to terror organisations — charges his supporters and international observers widely condemned as politically motivated. His detention sparked large street protests across Turkey and drew sharp criticism from the European Union and the United States.
The crackdown has not been limited to Istanbul. Ankara mayor Mansur Yavaş has faced repeated judicial and administrative pressure. Across Turkey, a number of elected CHP district mayors have been suspended by Interior Ministry decree and replaced by government-appointed trustees (kayyum) — a practice that critics, including the Council of Europe, have described as an assault on democratic local governance.
Human rights organisations and opposition figures argue that the judicial apparatus is being selectively deployed to delegitimise and destabilise the CHP ahead of the next national electoral cycle, a charge the government categorically denies, insisting all investigations are conducted independently and on their legal merits.