Istanbul, Ankara under probe over alleged illicit event spending

ISTANBUL, Nov. 14 (Xinhua) — Two Turkish public prosecutor offices have initiated investigations into Istanbul and Ankara municipalities over their expenditures at some public events, local media reported Thursday.
The Ankara chief prosecutor’s office said late on Wednesday that it had launched an investigation over the spending on two concerts organized by Ankara during celebrations marking the founding of the Republic of Türkiye on Oct. 29, local media reported.
Two inspectors from the Turkish interior ministry will be involved in the investigation, it reported.
There has been a heated public debate for nearly two weeks over claims that Ankara allocated 61 million Turkish Liras (around 1.8 million U.S. dollars) for those concerts, it reported.
Hours after the probe into Ankara, the Istanbul chief prosecutor’s office said it would investigate “irregular spending” at some public events organized by the Istanbul municipality, without elaborating, local media reported.
The two municipalities, both run by the main opposition Republican People’s Party, denied the allegations, it reported. ■