Imamoglu Probe Widens as Turkey Banks $8B in Defence Deals

The day's biggest domestic story stayed on the Imamoğlu front. The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor's Office said it had issued 30 detention warrants and police arrested 29 suspects in coordinated raids on Tree and Landscape Inc. (Ağaç ve Peyzaj A.Ş.), the IBB's municipal landscaping subsidiary; the remaining suspect is abroad. Among those detained were the IBB's deputy secretary-general, identified by daily Cumhuriyet as Oktay Özel, and the head of the Parks and Gardens Department. Prosecutors allege the suspects ran a "fictional tender system" to manipulate procurement and steer contracts, with bribes equal to 10% of contract values collected through company executives.

The raid is the latest extension of the wider corruption case prosecutors describe as a criminal organisation led by ousted CHP mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu. He has stood trial since March alongside 413 co-defendants on a 3,809-page indictment completed on November 11, 2025 that lists 142 alleged offences, with sentences sought of between 828 years and two months and 2,352 years; charges include forming a criminal group, bribery, money laundering, fraud against public institutions, unlawful collection and dissemination of personal data, destruction of evidence, bid-rigging and abuse of office. Imamoğlu and CHP have called the prosecutions politically motivated and aimed at blocking what would have been a competitive presidential bid against Recep Tayyip Erdoğan; the AKP rejects that framing.

Foreign-policy posture pivoted around the Iran war's energy fallout. Trade Minister Ömer Bolat said in Istanbul that the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz "will not be the same" after the conflict, noting roughly 25% of global oil and 20% of liquefied natural gas normally pass through the Strait, and calling the disruption "the biggest energy supply disruption ever." Bolat's framing matches Ankara's posture of tilting toward Tehran on the diplomatic surface while quietly insulating its own logistics — Turkey has continued to receive Iranian crude through pipeline routes that bypass the Hormuz blockade.

The day was also a defence-industry windfall. President Erdoğan said the SAHA 2026 defence trade show in Istanbul had generated $8 billion in agreements, including $6 billion in direct export contracts; 182 agreements were signed across the fair, which runs Tuesday to Saturday, with more than 1,760 companies participating. Defence Minister Yaşar Güler used the same expo to unveil the Yıldırımhan, Turkey's first liquid-fuelled long-range ballistic missile, which he said can carry a 3-ton warhead to a range of 6,000 kilometres and uses domestically produced unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine — a propellant breakthrough that frees the programme from imported supply chains.

Around the periphery, Türkiye's bond and lira markets continued to track the Hormuz premium and Iran-war pricing rather than the political calendar; activists organising the "Global Sumud Flotilla" Gaza aid mission said boats are regrouping at Marmaris harbour, with further details on the next phase promised on May 12.