In a parliamentary speech Jan. 12, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the opposition “the biggest problem of the country,” seeking to portray the main opposition leader and his aides as linked to terrorist groups and averse to Islam. The speech was widely seen as a fresh sign that Erdogan and his allies — hit by sagging poll ratings amid economic turmoil — would try to criminalize the opposition ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections next year.

Such worries have been on the rise since last month when the Interior Ministry brought up terrorism-related allegations against Ekrem Imamoglu, the highly popular mayor of Istanbul and member of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), while prosecutors took care to mention in an official indictment that CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu had met with an association of Kurdish imams, which stands accused of links to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), the armed Kurdish group that Ankara designates as a terrorist organization.

It all started with claims by Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu that more than 500 employees of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) were affiliated with terrorist groups. Imamoglu immediately asked the Interior Ministry for a list of names, but to no avail. Instead, the ministry announced Dec. 26 a “special” inspection at the IMM following “tip-offs and complaints” that the municipality and affiliate companies had recruited 455 people linked to the PKK and dozens of others affiliated with far-left and other groups designated as terrorist organizations.

Pro-government media published the names and pictures of 30 of the “terrorist” employees. Nine of them turned out to not be IMM employees at all, while the rest sued the papers for defamation.