President and AK Party Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdoğan attended the AK Party’s Opening Meeting of the Legislative Year with AK Party Members of Parliament, held at the AK Party Convention Center. Erdoğan pinned the party badge on İzmir Mayor Cemil Tugay, who had joined the AK Party. (AA Photo)
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pledged government support for İzmir after the mayor of Türkiye’s third-largest city, Cemil Tugay, joined his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on Oct. 7.
“The AK Party family continues to grow, strengthen and expand its ranks with new additions,” Erdoğan said at a ceremony in Ankara where Tugay formally joined the party.
“Those fed up with the pressure of party barons, who don’t even offer a greeting without a bribe ... and those striving to serve their cities in peace and harmony see the AK Party as the safest haven.”
He promised to support “with all our means efforts to serve İzmir, the pearl of the Aegean,” and pledged “municipalism of the heart” for the city.
Tugay, for his part, quoted Erdoğan and praised him as a “great leader,” saying politicians “should work to protect the rights of the poor, farmers, tradespeople and people who have been marginalized.”
“These are the words of our great leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has left his mark on the last 25 years of the Republic of Türkiye,” Tugay said.
He pledged to “revive İzmir and rebuild our city” with the support of the AKP.
“We will accomplish very good things through harmony between local government and the central government,” he said. “The most important thing is to win the trust of our people and win their hearts. We will never forget this.”
The main opposition New Party called on supporters to gather outside its provincial headquarters in İzmir. Authorities closed several squares in the city ahead of the event, news agencies reported.
Tugay met Erdoğan at the Presidential Complex on Sept. 30. He had repeatedly denied reports until recently that he would join the ruling party.
The AKP posted a video about İzmir on social media on Oct. 6, showing a garbage-filled area being transformed through editing into a landscape filled with flowers.
New Party leader Özgür Özel responded, calling Erdoğan and Tugay’s potential appearance together at the Oct. 7 ceremony a “new shameful picture.”
“You have never won İzmir at the ballot box, and you never will,” Özel wrote.
İzmir has been governed by mayors from the Democratic Left Party (DSP) and the Republican People’s Party (CHP) since 1999.
The last mayor elected from a right-wing party was Burhan Özfatura, who served as mayor as a candidate first for the Motherland Party and later for the True Path Party.
The AKP has failed to win the İzmir mayoral race in the past three local elections. It fielded Binali Yıldırım in 2014, Nihat Zeybekci in 2019 and Hamza Dağ in 2024.
Tugay joined the CHP in 2010 and held various positions in the party and its committees. He was elected mayor of the Karşıyaka district in 2019 before winning the İzmir election in 2024.
He resigned from the CHP on June 18 and has served as an independent mayor since then.
