List of mayors of Istanbul

In the Ottoman Empire, the duty of municipal government was the responsibility of the "Şehremini", a mayor-like leader, and local religious judges, "Kadı".

The first mayor of Ottoman Constantinople after the conquest on May 29, 1453 was Hızırbey Çelebi. Until 1858, the capital of the Ottoman Empire was governed by a total of 422 kadis.

The idea to establish a municipality organization based on Western standards was first discussed in 1854 during the Crimean War when diplomats and journalists of allied nations came to Constantinople. Later, the parliament accepted a law for the establishment of the office of a mayor and a city council.

Salih Paşa received the first title of the new, modern Şehremini on July 13, 1858, and governed until November 4, 1858. During the Tanzimat period, 18 mayors took office.

In 1876, as First constitutional monarchy was proclaimed, Kadri Paşa was the mayor of Constantinople. During this period 10 mayors governed Constantinople.

During the reign of Young Turks, between 1908–1918 and until the foundation of the republic, 23 mayors served in the capital.

After the proclamation of the republic on October 29, 1923, the governor of the city was charged with the duties as deputy mayor. With the municipality act of April 3, 1930, the title of mayor was abandoned and the governor of Istanbul province took over the duties of the mayor. The two separate councils of the province and the municipality were unified. The two councils were reestablished on March 1, 1957.

• 1 Haydar Yuluğ (April 15, 1923 – June 8, 1924)
• 2 Emin Erkul (June 8, 1924 – October 12, 1928)
• 3 Muhittin Üstündağ (October 14, 1928 – December 4, 1938)
• 4 Lütfi Kırdar (December 8, 1938 – October 16, 1949)
• 5 Fahrettin Kerim Gökay (October 24, 1949 – October 26, 1957)
• 6 Kemal Hadımlı (July 12, 1957 – October 5, 1957) (deputy)
• 7 Mümtaz Tarhan (November 29, 1957 – May 11, 1958)
• 8 Ethem Yetkiner (May 14, 1958 – December 24, 1958)
• 9 Kemal Aygün (December 25, 1958 – May 27, 1960)

After the coup d'état on May 27, 1960, the military appointed mayors until 1963.

• 10 General Refik Tulga (May 27, 1960 – June 14, 1960)
• 11 General Şefik Erensü (June 14, 1960 – September 24, 1960)
• 12 General Refik Tulga (September 24, 1960 – February 26, 1962)
• 13 Turan Ertuğ (February 27, 1962 – March 16, 1962)
• 14 Kadri İlkay (March 17, 1962 – December 30, 1963) (deputy)
• 15 Kamuran Görgün (June 8, 1962 – June 22, 1962)
• 16 Niyazi Akı (January 31, 1963 – February 28, 1963) (deputy)
• 17 Necdet Uğur (February 23, 1963 – December 9, 1963)

The municipality act of July 27, 1963, enabled the election of the mayor. The polls held on November 17, 1963, were the first regional elections to elect the mayor.

• 18 Haşim İşcan (December 10, 1963 – March 11, 1968) (CHP)
• 19 Faruk Ilgaz (March 12, 1968 – June 6, 1968) (AP) (deputy)
• 20 Fahri Atabey (June 8, 1968 – December 9, 1973) (AP)
• 21 Ahmet İsvan (December 14, 1973 – December 11, 1977) (CHP)
• 22 Aytekin Kotil (December 14, 1977 – September 12, 1980) (CHP)

After the coup d'état on September 12, 1980, the military appointed mayors until 1984.

With the act of December 4, 1981, the municipality of some big cities in Turkey was reorganized to meet the changed requirements.

• 23 General İsmail Hakki Akansel (September 12, 1980 – August 30, 1981)
• 24 General Ecmel Kutay (August 30, 1981 – March 24, 1982)
• 25 Abdullah Tırtıl (March 24, 1982 – March 26, 1984) (appointed)

On March 8, 1984, the metropolitan municipality act was put into force and on March 23 the municipality of Greater Istanbul was established.

No.	Portrait	Name (Birth–Death)	Term of office			Political party		Notes
			Took office	Left office	Time in office
26		Bedrettin Dalan (born 1941)	26 March 1984	28 March 1989	5 years, 2 days		ANAP
27		Nurettin Sözen (born 1937)	28 March 1989	27 March 1994	4 years, 364 days		SHP
28		Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 1954)	27 March 1994	6 November 1998	4 years, 224 days		RP/FP	Elected in the 1994 election. Sacked after being sentenced to 10 months in jail.[2]
29		Ali Müfit Gürtuna (born 1952)	12 November 1998	28 March 2004	5 years, 137 days		FP (until 2001)	Elected by the city council.[3]
							Independent (from 2001)
30		Kadir Topbaş (1945-2021)	28 March 2004	22 September 2017	13 years, 179 days		AKP	Re-elected twice (in 2009 and 2014). Resigned at the request of AKP and incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.[4]
31		Mevlüt Uysal (born 1966)	22 September 2017	17 April 2019	1 year, 207 days		AKP	Elected by the city council.[5]
32		Ekrem İmamoğlu (born 1970)	17 April 2019	6 May 2019	19 days		CHP	Elected in the March 2019 election. Election annulled by the Supreme Electoral Council (YSK) on 6 May 2019.
—		Ali Yerlikaya (born 1968) Acting	7 May 2019	27 June 2019	51 days		Independent	Governor of Istanbul, appointed as acting mayor.
(32)		Ekrem İmamoğlu (born 1970)	27 June 2019	Incumbent	4 years, 122 days		CHP	Re-elected in the June 2019 re-run election.