Politics
Turkish authorities link corruption cases in CHP municipalities
Turkish police detained two suspects, including the daughter-in-law of suspended Antalya Mayor Muhittin Böcek, as part of a widening corruption investigation into Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB), authorities announced Thursday.
The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued detention warrants for three suspects, including Zuhal Böcek, as part of an investigation into alleged organized crime, bribery, extortion, aggravated fraud, bid-rigging and the unlawful acquisition of personal data.
Police detained Böcek and one other suspect, while efforts continued to capture a third suspect, officials said.
The investigation is one of several targeting municipal structures and people linked to the suspended Antalya mayor. Muhittin Böcek’s chief adviser, two Antalya Metropolitan Municipality employees and two drivers had previously been arrested as part of the same Istanbul-based probe.
Separately, prosecutors in Antalya issued detention warrants for 34 suspects in an investigation targeting a municipal affiliate. Authorities said Muhittin Böcek, who is already jailed and suspended from office, was among the suspects named in that case.
Police operations to apprehend the suspects were ongoing, officials said.
Previously, Muhittin Böcek of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) was arrested in July on allegations of accepting a TL 195 million ($4.32 million) bribe with his son, reportedly laundered through jewelry stores and currency exchanges. The Interior Ministry later suspended him from duty.
The investigation expanded over the following months through a series of coordinated police operations targeting suspects connected to the municipality, including businesspeople and municipal officials.
The main opposition CHP is under mounting scrutiny as a wave of corruption, bribery and terrorism-related investigations sweeps across its municipalities.
Responding to speculations that S-400 missile defense systems would be sold to a third country, the Ministry of National Defense said Thursday that “multilateral work” was underway and the public would be informed “once concrete steps are taken.”
This month’s NATO summit and U.S. President Donald Trump’s pledge to sell F-35 fighter jets to Türkiye led to rumors that Ankara may give up the missile system it acquired from Russia in 2019. The acquisition led the U.S. to speed up the sanctions process against the country it is allied with in NATO. On the sidelines of the NATO summit, Trump has also signaled an end to Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA) sanctions against Türkiye. Turkish media outlets have claimed that the Russian system would be sold to either Qatar or the United Arab Emirates (UAE), two countries that have faced the risk of spillover of the U.S.-Israel war against Iran since February.
Speaking alongside President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan at the Presidential Complex after arriving in Ankara for the NATO leaders summit, Trump said the time had come to remove sanctions that have strained relations between the two NATO allies.
“We’re going to lift the sanctions,” Trump said. “We don’t want to sanction our friends. I don’t want to choke my friend with sanctions.”
Calling Türkiye a militarily powerful country under Erdoğan’s leadership, Trump remarked that relations between Washington and Ankara were at their strongest point in years.
“I have great respect for President Erdoğan,” he said. “This is truly in the interest of both countries. I can say that our relationship with Türkiye is better now than it has ever been.”
Cyprus dispute
The ministry also commented on the European Parliament’s recent approval of a controversial report regarding Cyprus. The report claimed Turkish troops who were deployed to the island for the 1974 Peace Operation to save Turkish Cypriots from massacres by Greek Cypriot gangs were involved in sex crimes against Greek Cypriots. The ministry said the allegations in the report were baseless and heinous.
In a statement, the ministry said the report also chose to ignore massacres of Turkish Cypriots in the divided island, and this alone was the indicator of a biased approach of the European Parliament, which based its report on Greek Cypriot propaganda.
The ministry noted that Türkiye ended attacks on the existence of Turkish Cypriots through its peace operation, which was based on Türkiye’s legitimate rights and authority cemented in international agreements.
“The Turkish military presence on the island has safeguarded peace, security and stability on the island for more than half a century. The Republic of Türkiye, as a guarantor state, will continue protecting the Turkish Cypriot people’s rights, interests and security. The Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) are determined to respond to any hostile acts targeting the security of Turkish Cypriot people,” the statement said.
The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) will mark another milestone in its political journey that began on Aug. 14, 2001. The People’s Garden in Ankara, an example of the AK Party government’s brainchild to expand public parks, will host the celebrations for the party’s 25th anniversary.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who helmed the party throughout the stormy times to the successive victories, will join the celebration.
The celebration will also mark the start of the party’s campaign for the 2028 elections. Thousands of AK Party supporters are expected to turn out for the event.
Evolved from a modest gathering of experienced politicians and newcomers calling themselves the “Movement of the Virtuous,” the party went on a streak of successive election victories for two decades. It is credited with transforming Türkiye in the first two decades of the 2000s, from education and health care to the arts, democracy, human rights, the defense industry and energy.
Nowadays, the party, under the leadership of Erdoğan, is working toward achieving the ambitious “Century of Türkiye” vision, a new set of reforms aimed at enhancing Türkiye’s standing in the world and improving the lives of the Turkish nation in all fields.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday praised Türkiye’s ongoing mediation efforts, expressing gratitude to Ankara for its diplomatic work to broker negotiations with Russia to help end the war, now in its fifth year.
Zelenskyy’s remarks came after he met in Kyiv with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, whom he awarded the Order of Merit, Second Class.
“I am grateful to Türkiye and to the Minister personally for the efforts to bring peace closer,” the president wrote on the social media platform X.
“Today, we discussed the diplomatic situation and the steps that could reinvigorate efforts to achieve peace.”
NATO member Türkiye has sought to maintain good relations with its warring Black Sea neighbors, pitching itself as a key go-between and possible peacemaker between the two.
It has played a role in brokering several prisoner swap deals between Russia and Ukraine and helped put in place a deal in 2022 to ensure grain could be shipped safely from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. The accord remained in effect for a year.
Istanbul was the venue of peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in the early weeks of the conflict four years ago.
Ukraine is in its best battlefield position since late 2022, gaining new battlefield momentum while striking Russia’s oil sector and military logistics in drone and missile attacks.
Despite those gains, Kyiv’s forces still face grinding Russian advances in the east amid a critical shortage of ground troops, as well as a lack of air defenses as Moscow steps up strikes with ballistic missiles.
Throughout the conflict, Ukraine and Russia have repeatedly struck each other’s ships in the Black Sea, a key shipping route for both countries’ exports as well as Türkiye’s.
Zelenskyy said he and Fidan discussed the situation on the battlefield, as well as Ankara’s diplomatic contacts at various levels.
Earlier on Thursday, Fidan said the “Istanbul format” of peace negotiations between its Black Sea neighbors should continue.
He also said Türkiye did not want to see the war spread further into the Black Sea, adding that Ankara is exploring new strategic approaches to break the current deadlock in the conflict.
“There is simply no explanation for a war in Europe to continue for five years in the 21st century. We need peace more than ever,” Fidan said at a news conference alongside his Ukrainian counterpart.
Fidan, who met President Vladimir Putin in Russia last month, said Türkiye was ready to host future talks.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Zelenskyy would be ready to meet Putin in Türkiye.
The Kremlin chief has repeatedly rejected meeting Zelenskyy until a deal is agreed to end the war.
U.S.-led talks have also stalled and the two sides remain far apart in their terms for peace.
Meanwhile, Ukraine’s Parliament ratified the free trade agreement (FTA) with Türkiye on Tuesday.
The deal was signed during President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Ukraine in February 2022. It completed Türkiye’s ratification process in 2024.
Zelenskyy said talks with Fidan, among others, also focused on the implementation of the trade pact.
“We expect trade between our countries to keep growing,” he wrote.
Family and Social Services Minister Mahinur Özdemir Göktaş stressed that a new draft bill on juvenile crime primarily aims to prevent children from being dragged into a life of crime.
Göktaş was speaking to broadcaster NTV on Thursday on the bill announced earlier this week by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
The bill is one of the most comprehensive ones on children involved in crime, but its highlight has been the introduction of life sentences for convicts at the age of 15, though it would be at the discretion of the court.
Göktaş underlined that the proposed bill would strengthen the mechanism to protect children and prevent crime.
“Our goal is to identify, minimize and eliminate the risks children face before they are drawn into crime. For children who do enter the judicial process, we aim to establish an effective coordination mechanism from the very beginning, working in close cooperation with the judiciary and all relevant institutions,” she said.
She stated that all protective measures for children will be consolidated under a single framework. She explained that once a child becomes involved in the judicial process, the relevant institutions will be notified simultaneously so that protective measures can be implemented without delay. She added that, under the ministry’s coordination, all relevant institutions will be integrated into the process. At the local level, commissions established within provincial governorates will monitor child protection measures on a case-by-case basis.
As Türkiye still waits for the next stage of the terror-free Türkiye initiative for the disarmament of the PKK terrorist group, two key actors of the process met on Thursday.
Government ally Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, who informally launched the initiative two years ago, met a delegation from the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), which has intricate links to the terrorist group.
DEM Party lawmakers Pervin Buldan and Mithat Sancar and lawyer Faik Özgür Erol visited Bahçeli at his office in the Turkish Parliament. The trio is also part of a delegation that regularly visits the PKK’s jailed ringleader, Abdullah Öcalan, on the island prison near Istanbul where he is incarcerated. The initiative moved forward with the DEM Party relaying Öcalan’s message to the PKK in which he called for the dissolution of the terrorist group.
Neither Bahçeli nor the DEM Party delegation, who met before as part of the initiative, commented on their meeting, which lasted for about 40 minutes. The delegation has held talks with ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) officials on Wednesday.
Media outlets reported that the talks focused on a “framework law,” which is expected to follow the confirmation of the PKK’s full disarmament. The law will cover a reduction in prison terms for a limited group of PKK members and regulations to facilitate the process. Öcalan and other PKK figures already sentenced to aggravated life imprisonment will be exempt from any leniency, according to the media reports.
Turkish authorities detained six suspects Thursday in a second wave of an investigation into alleged bribery and extortion at Istanbul’s Beykoz Municipality, prosecutors said.
The Beykoz Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office issued detention warrants for eight suspects as part of an ongoing investigation into allegations of bribery and extortion linked to the tenure of former Beykoz Mayor Alaattin Köseler, who was previously suspended from office.
According to prosecutors, the latest operation was launched based on evidence collected during the investigation, statements from complainants and testimony provided by suspects under Türkiye’s effective remorse provisions.
The suspects include businesspeople, a Beykoz municipal council member and former municipal employees who are alleged to have participated in the offenses under investigation.
Six suspects were detained during coordinated police raids, while efforts to locate and apprehend the remaining two suspects are ongoing.
The investigation remains underway.
Earlier this month, former Beykoz Mayor Köseler was arrested as part of the investigation into alleged bribery, extortion and zoning-related corruption. Prosecutors said the case was supported by witness testimony and statements given under Türkiye’s effective remorse provisions.
Dozens of mayors and municipal bureaucrats from Türkiye’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) were detained or arrested in the past two years in investigations focusing on corruption. The majority of allegations involve bribery in return for construction permits, which are otherwise subject to strict regulations, and rigging the lucrative tenders of municipalities.
While the CHP is facing internal chaos and a leadership crisis between the former head, Özgür Özel, and CHP Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has seen a stream of new transfers in the past two years.
Since the 2024 elections, 15 mayors have left their parties and joined the AK Party. Most of them were formerly members of the CHP.
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