The mayor of Izmir, Turkey’s third city and an opposition stronghold, has defected to the ruling AKP in a move hailed by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president.

Turkey’s opposition is battling an increasingly intense crackdown, with a barrage of what observers say are politically motivated arrests and lawsuits targeting its mayors and elected officials.

Cemil Tugay’s decision to join the Islamic-rooted Justice and Development party (AKP) was announced by Erdoğan at a parliamentary group meeting in Ankara, where he welcomed the mayor amid a party-like atmosphere broadcast live on TV.

“I welcome Izmir mayor Cemil Tugay, who is today joining the AKP family,” Erdoğan said, presenting him with a party pin.

The scene caused anger and disgust on the streets of Izmir, a secular resort city of 4.5 million people on Turkey’s Aegean coast. Kadir Ozturk, 52, said of Tugay: “If I were his mother, I wouldn’t be able to show my face in public. His wife should divorce him. A person needs a backbone.” Tugay had vowed in January that he would never switch to the AKP and that if he did, his mother would disown him and his wife would leave him.

Taking control of the mayorship of Izmir, which has been governed by social democrats since 1999, is a big coup for Erdoğan, although opposition parties retain a majority on the city council.

The centre-left Republican People’s party (CHP) won a resounding victory in the local elections of March 2024, but it has since faced a growing intimidation campaign. Six of its provincial mayors have been arrested, including Ekrem İmamoğlu, the mayor of Istanbul, and 29 of its district mayors, according to figures published on Wednesday by the independent Diken news website.

There has been a growing number of defections to Erdoğan’s AKP, which had gained at least 17 opposition mayors before Tugay’s defection, the Medyascope news website said last week.

“This is a continuation of AKP’s strategy to reverse its major defeat in the 2024 local elections through force and repression,” said Berk Esen, a political analyst.

He said mayors were not changing sides because they had changed their ideology or been won over by the ruling party. Rather, many were doing it “out of fear”.

“This is a continuation of AKP’s strategy to reverse its major defeat in the 2024 local elections through force and repression,” added Esen.

Tugay took office as mayor in April 2024 just after CHP’s local election victory, but in June he resigned from the party after its leadership was replaced in a controversial court ruling.

The former CHP leader, Özgür Özel, went on to found the Yeni party, taking 90 lawmakers with him and becoming Turkey’s main opposition. Tugay said he would remain independent, leading to rumours he was planning to defect.

On Tuesday Özel spoke of the campaign of pressure, threats and blackmail faced by Izmir’s elected officials. “Those who do not bow to this pressure … will remain our brothers until the day they die. But those who sell out and leave are traitors,” he said.