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In an investigation launched last year, it was found that more than 1,600 employees in the Istanbul Municipality were connected to terrorist organizations, the Turkish Ministry of the Interior announced, as quoted by Hurriyet Daily News.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs informed that reports were prepared, according to which 455 of the employees employed in organizations and companies related to the municipality had contacts with the PKK (Kurdish Workers' Party) group, 80 - with the left-wing extremist Revolutionary Party and People's Liberation Front (DHKP-S), 20 - with the Marxist-Leninist Communist Party (MLKP, affiliated with the PKK), and others - with FETO (the Fethullahist terrorist organization, which, according to the Turkish authorities, is behind the attempted coup in the country in 2016) and with other groupings.

A written statement from the interior ministry said an eight-member panel had found it had data on 1,668 people who were "linked to terrorist organisations".

Turkey has deported nearly 120,000 illegal migrants in 2022.

As municipal mayors have the power to judge whether municipal officials meet the conditions for appointment or not, they will initially be held criminally liable if they are found to have appointed persons who do not meet the conditions.

Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu described the investigation as "fabricated". 

The investigation was launched last year due to suspicions that hundreds of people employed in the municipality were connected to terrorist organizations.

Nationalist Movement Party (PND) leader Devlet Bahceli said Imamoglu should be removed from his post if found guilty.

Bahçeli added that Turkey's largest city should not be "handed over to terrorist organizations", while the leader of the Kemalist People's Republic Party (NRP) Kemal Kulçdaroğlu defended Imamoğlu, saying the accusations were "baseless".

A Turkish court this month sentenced Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, a popular opponent of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to more than two years in prison and banned him from political activity for insulting officials.

The court's decision has not yet entered into force and it is expected to be appealed to a higher court.

terrorist organizations

municipal officials