ISTANBUL — In a presidential decree published late Thursday, Istanbul’s opposition-held Princes’ Islands were designated as an “environmental protection area,” transferring the management of zoning rights there to Ankara’s Ministry of Environment and Urbanization.

Presented as an environmental policy to mitigate further ecological degradation in the Marmara Sea, where the islands are situated just south of Istanbul, the move raised concerns of anti-democratic overreach by Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has been accused of meddling in multiple opposition-run municipalities in recent years.

Since losing control of Istanbul’s city government to Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in the 2019 local elections, democracy advocates say Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP has chipped away at the municipality’s jurisdiction, seizing governing powers in some areas while diverting tourism revenues generated in others and also blocking municipal projects like discount bread kiosks in certain districts.

“This is something the government has been doing quite systematically since 2019,” Berk Esen, an assistant professor of political science at Sabanci University, told Al-Monitor.