Zeydan Karalar, who serves as the Adana Metropolitan Municipality Mayor and the Deputy Chairman of the Union of Municipalities of Turkey, was arrested following a lengthy detention period in connection with an investigation into the Aziz İhsan Aktaş criminal organization. The arrest of Karalar, who is considered one of the leading figures responsible for altering the CHP’s “unfortunate fate” in Adana, was met with substantial public protest.
Born in Adana’s Seyhan district on January 1, 1958, Zeydan Karalar completed his primary and secondary schooling in his hometown before graduating from Çukurova University with a degree in Mechanical Engineering. His political ascent began on July 7, 2010, when the CHP Central Executive Board appointed him as the CHP Adana Provincial Chairman. This position was later affirmed when he was elected at the CHP Adana Provincial Congress on January 23, 2011.
Established in 1871, the Adana Municipality was upgraded to a Metropolitan Municipality in 1986. This administrative reclassification coincided with the creation of two new districts, Seyhan and Yüreğir. In 2008, a further redistricting occurred, forming the Çukurova district from a portion of Seyhan and the Sarıçam district from a part of Yüreğir. This action was widely seen as a political strategy by the governing party to secure its influence in Seyhan, particularly because the new Çukurova district had a strong CHP voter base.
Until 2014, the Seyhan Municipality, which was founded in 1986 and held its first election in 1989, had been governed by a succession of parties including SHP, ANAP, DSP, and the AKP, whose candidate Azim Öztürk won the 2004-2009 term. After becoming the CHP Adana Provincial Chairman in 2011, Karalar ran as the CHP’s candidate for Seyhan Mayor in the 2014 local elections. In his first electoral race, he achieved a landmark victory with 31 percent of the vote, unseating the powerful incumbent, Azim Öztürk of the AKP, and becoming the first CHP mayor in the municipality’s history. Following Karalar’s breakthrough, the CHP has maintained control of Seyhan in the 2019 and 2024 elections. (It should be noted that the current Seyhan Mayor, Oya Tekin, is also among those detained in the recent operations.)
A similar challenging scenario existed for the CHP in the Adana Metropolitan Municipality. Since Adana became a metropolitan area in 1986, its mayorship had been held by SHP in 1989, followed by Aytaç Durak for ANAP in 1994 and 1999, Aytaç Durak for AKP in 2004, Aytaç Durak for MHP in 2009, and MHP candidate Hüseyin Sözlü in 2014. For the 2019 local elections, Zeydan Karalar was named the candidate for the CHP, a party that had never won the Adana mayorship post-1986. Karalar went on to defeat the incumbent MHP mayor, Hüseyin Sözlü, by securing a decisive 53% of the vote.
Running for re-election in the 2024 elections, Karalar won a second term as Adana Metropolitan Mayor with 47% of the vote, creating a 9-point difference over the AKP candidate, Fatih Mehmet Kocaispir. This win was accomplished despite the MHP not fielding a candidate and the DEM party presenting its own. Following the arrest of Ekrem İmamoğlu on March 23, Karalar had also been elected Deputy Chairman at the Union of Municipalities of Turkey.
In his final statement to the court before his arrest, Karalar said, “The alleged conversation never took place, and there is no evidence to suggest it did. If this person claims they haven’t been paid for 4 years, why didn’t they initiate legal enforcement proceedings? Because they received their payments routinely. I have been referred for arrest based on the testimony of someone whose psychology is disturbed and who is making false accusations to get out of prison. There is no evidence I can tamper with, and I am not the Mayor of Seyhan at this time. I want to serve my country, and I request to be released”.