President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has named Istanbul’s chief public prosecutor as his new justice minister, Turkey’s official gazette reported, in a decision made public early on Wednesday.
It was not immediately clear what prompted the reshuffle, which will also see a new interior minister appointed. The gazette stated that both outgoing ministers had resigned.
As the top prosecutor in Turkey’s largest city, Akın Gürlek issued the arrest warrant for Istanbul’s influential mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, in March last year, a move widely viewed as politically motivated that sparked the country’s worst street unrest in over a decade.
The arrest occurred just days before İmamoğlu — considered the only politician capable of defeating Erdoğan at the ballot box — was named as the main opposition CHP party’s candidate for the 2028 presidential election.
A former deputy justice minister, Gürlek has been accused by opponents of targeting Erdoğan’s political rivals.
Since his appointment as Istanbul’s chief public prosecutor in October 2024, more than 15 CHP mayors have been arrested, most on corruption charges which they deny.
He has also ordered investigations into hundreds of CHP members on allegations ranging from graft to links with terrorism and insulting the president.
İmamoğlu, 54, is currently facing a series of legal cases, including one in which he is accused of questioning Gürlek’s integrity.
Prosecutors have also opened an investigation into CHP leader Özgür Özel over allegations he threatened and insulted Gürlek.
Gürlek succeeds Yılmaz Tunç as justice minister, while the interior portfolio, previously held by Ali Yerlikaya, will be handed to Mustafa Çiftçi, the governor of the eastern province of Erzurum.
