By Huseyin Hayatsever

ANKARA (Reuters) -A mayor from Turkey’s main opposition party joined President Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party on Thursday amid a crackdown on the opposition in which 15 mayors have been detained.

Ozlem Cercioglu, mayor of the western city of Aydin since 2009 and previously a lawmaker for the Republican People’s Party (CHP), quit the CHP, citing disagreements with the party administration.

“Despite repeatedly seeking solutions to the problems we face within the CHP, we have unfortunately been unable to reach a resolution. I am no longer on the same path as the CHP,” she said in a post on X.

Later in the day, she joined the AK Party in a ceremony attended by Erdogan along with three of her district mayors, who had also quit the CHP.

Waves of investigations have b

See Full Page