Turkish police on Thursday detained an award-winning television actor who became an opposition mayor in an Ankara district as part of a corruption investigation. Erdal Beşikçioğlu, best known for playing a homicide detective, is the latest member of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) to face criminal proceedings in what the opposition says is a politically motivated campaign. The 56-year-old Beşikçioğlu was elected mayor of Etimesgut, a district of some 600,000 people in western Ankara, in 2024. The Ankara West Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued detention warrants for 55 suspects, including Beşikçioğlu, in simultaneous raids centered in Ankara and conducted across nine provinces. Police on Wednesday also detained Sinem Dedetaş, the CHP mayor of İstanbul’s Üsküdar district, and five other people over alleged bribery, extortion and irregularities in building permit and occupancy procedures.