He was also an executive board member of the Turkish Heavy Industry and Service Sector Public Employers' Union (TÜHİS).

As customary when a political position is in doubt, the Ministry of the Interior appointed the city's incumbent governor, namely Yerlikaya, as acting Mayor of Istanbul until the vacancy could be filled by the re-run vote.

[2] He was also criticised for supposedly turning a blind eye to pro-Yıldırım posters and campaigns being conducted by municipal workers, who are required to remain neutral.

[citation needed] Since June 2023, he is the interior minister in the cabinet led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

[4] While serving as governor of Gaziantep, Yerlikaya made a series of gaffes during statements about captured militants from the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

[7] While serving as governor of Istanbul, he banned Beru, the Kurdish adaption of Dario Fo's play Faceless, shortly before it was to be performed by the theatre company Teatro Jiyana Nû.