Şişli Vice Mayor Resigns Over Claim His Father Threatened To Kill Mayor

The vice mayor of İstanbul's Şişli district, Emir Sarıgül, resigned from his post on Friday after claims surfaced that his father, former Şişli Mayor Mustafa Sarıgül, threatened to kill current Şişli Mayor Hayri İnönü if he does not leave office for the younger Sarıgül to take over.

Vice Mayor Sarıgül announced in his resignation that he is giving Mayor İnönü what he wants, even though the current mayor “complained about not being able to do his job.”

In an interview the Hürriyet published on Thursday, academic Nazlı İnönü, the wife of Mayor İnönü, claimed that she and her husband had received death threats from former Şişli Mayor Sarıgül. According to the academic, they were threatened because the elder Sarıgül wanted her husband to resign from his post as mayor and leave his office to the vice mayor, Sarıgül's son.

She claimed that she especially feared for the safety of her children, who live in New York, because Sarıgül also threatened to hire “members of the mafia” to harm the couple's children. In a series of severe allegations, the academic also said: "My husband hastily traveled to the US to warn our sons. He [Mustafa Sarıgül] also implied that he might have me abducted. I did not go home that day."

Claims of the threats had circulated before Mayor İnönü's wife spoke to Hürriyet and, three weeks back, the mayor had commented that though he was not being threatened at the time, he had received threats in the past.

Following his wife's interview, İnönü, a member of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), issued a written statement on Friday saying that his wife's words reflect the emotions of a mother worried about her children and that her statements were about Mustafa Sarıgül, not his son Emir.

(Cihan/Today's Zaman)