Politics
Türkiye delves into suspicious death cases of journalist, police chief
Justice Minister Akın Gürlek on Thursday hosted the families of a murdered journalist and a police chief whose death has long been considered suspicious by his relatives.
The meetings are part of the Justice Ministry’s effort to shed light on unsolved murders from past decades. Since taking office in February, Gürlek has pledged to seek closure in high-profile cold cases that have remained unresolved for years.
Gürlek’s first guests were the son and sister of Behçet Oktay, the former head of the Turkish National Police’s elite Special Operations Department. Oktay was found dead next to his car in Ankara in 2009, and his death was officially ruled a suicide. His family rejected that conclusion, insisting that he was murdered.
The family believes the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) may have been involved in his death, saying Oktay was known for opposing FETÖ loyalists who had secretly infiltrated law enforcement at the time. Gürlek echoed that point after meeting the family, saying Oktay had been “in FETÖ’s crosshairs” when he died. He added that the case warranted a new investigation, including a review of the actions of the first responders at the scene.
Oktay’s sister, Şule, told the minister that the police chief had been targeted by defamatory articles in pro-FETÖ media outlets before his death. She said Oktay had planned to have dinner at home but changed his plans at the last minute after being invited elsewhere.
“It was three in the morning when we were told that he had committed suicide. The case was not thoroughly investigated, and it was closed,” she said.
Oktay’s son, Burak, said the family had been told that his father died by suicide using his personal pistol, but the bullets recovered from his body did not match the ammunition loaded in the weapon at the time of his death.
Gürlek’s next guests were Şükran Güldal Mumcu and Özgür Mumcu, the wife and son of Uğur Mumcu, respectively. Mumcu was a prominent investigative journalist and author of several nonfiction books. He was killed when a bomb planted in his car exploded outside his home in Ankara on Jan. 24, 1993.
His assassination was blamed on an Iran-linked group, and one suspect accused of planting the bomb was captured and convicted. However, the family has repeatedly called for the case to be reopened to identify the masterminds behind the assassination and apprehend a fugitive suspect who remains at large.
Speaking during his meeting with the Oktay family, Gürlek said the ministry was paying particular attention to suspicious cases from the 2007-2010 period, highlighting the murder of journalist Hrant Dink and the death of politician Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu in a helicopter crash.
“We are paying particular attention to this period to determine whether there may be any fingerprints of FETÖ. These incidents may have been part of an organized operation,” Gürlek said.
Although Dink’s killer was captured, the full motive behind the assassination has never been conclusively established, as earlier stages of the investigation were allegedly obstructed by police chiefs linked to FETÖ.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Tuesday welcomed the submission of the draft law on the terrorist PKK’s dissolution, describing it as a product of broad political consensus aimed at eliminating the terrorist threat, reinforcing national unity and fostering lasting peace in Türkiye and the wider region.
In a statement following the introduction of the bill to the Turkish Parliament, Erdoğan said the proposal was the product of comprehensive consultations and embodied the nation’s determination to resolve one of its longstanding security challenges.
“The Law on Strengthening National Solidarity and Social Cohesion, prepared following extensive consultations, has been submitted to our esteemed Parliament with broad consensus reflecting our nation’s determination to achieve a solution,” Erdoğan said on social media.
The president said the legislation seeks to permanently free Türkiye from the threat of terrorism while reinforcing national solidarity and fostering a climate of peace both at home and across the region.
“I hope this important step, which aims to permanently rid Türkiye of the terrorist threat, strengthen our national unity and solidarity, and reinforce an atmosphere of peace in our country and region, will bring positive outcomes,” he said.
Erdoğan also thanked those who contributed to drafting the legislation and advancing the process, singling out Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Chair Devlet Bahçeli, the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) partner in the People’s Alliance, for his role.
He also expressed appreciation to parliamentary groups and lawmakers who supported the legislative effort, voicing hope that the process would continue successfully in the coming period.
The bill was submitted to Parliament earlier Tuesday with the signatures of nearly 360 lawmakers, marking what government officials have described as a key stage in the “Terror-Free Türkiye” initiative aimed at ending the country’s decadeslong fight against terrorism.
The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) presented a draft bill to Parliament on Wednesday as the next stage of the landmark terror-free Türkiye initiative, aimed at dissolving the PKK through the reintegration of former members of the terrorist group.
Two years after it informally began, the terror-free Türkiye initiative took a new turn on Wednesday. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) submitted a bill to Parliament that is expected to further advance the process. The party began collecting signatures from political parties on Tuesday, and the bill will likely be brought before Parliament for further discussion and an eventual vote. Most parties support the plan. Some 360 signatures were collected from the lawmakers.
AK Party parliamentary group chair Abdullah Güler shared the details of the bill, titled “The Law on National Solidarity and Social Integration,” at a news conference on Wednesday at Parliament. One of the articles of the 12-article bill involves delays in sentencing. “Provided that the security authorities have determined that the terrorist organization has ceased its de facto existence and surrendered all weapons and ammunition under its control, and that the decision of the National Security Council confirming this determination has been published in the Official Gazette, investigations and prosecutions relating to offenses falling within the scope of Article 1 shall be postponed. This shall not apply to investigations and prosecutions concerning the offense of intentional homicide committed within the scope of the organization’s activities or offenses committed before June 1, 2005, that carry a sentence of life imprisonment or aggravated life imprisonment. Investigations and prosecutions concerning offenses punishable by a maximum sentence of 15 years’ imprisonment or less shall be postponed for five years, while those concerning offenses punishable by more than 15 years’ imprisonment, life imprisonment, or aggravated life imprisonment shall be postponed for 10 years,” the article says, effectively removing the possibility of leniency or reduction in the sentences or pending sentencing of senior leaders of PKK, including ringleader Abdullah Öcalan who already serves aggravated life imprisonment.
Another article leaves it to the judge’s discretion to postpone the execution of the sentence of PKK members who were sentenced to 15 years or less for five years and the execution of the sentence of those sentenced to 15 years to life imprisonment for 10 years. The bill tasks a board that is set to be established after its implementation with the implementation and follow-up of the execution of clauses in the bill. The board will be comprised of the vice president, ministers, the national intelligence chief and the secretary-general of the presidency. The deferrals, nevertheless, will be subject to cancellation if those whose sentences are postponed commit another act of terrorism during the period of deferral.
Parliament will postpone the start of its summer recess to pass the law, which would mark the culmination of lengthy parliamentary debates, messages delivered by the PKK’s jailed ringleader Abdullah Öcalan calling on the group to dissolve itself, and the PKK’s moves to lay down its arms, which began last year. The dissolution process is being monitored by Turkish intelligence, and authorities have repeatedly said the temporary law will only be implemented once the group’s disarmament is fully completed.
PKK members involved in acts of terrorism will not be covered by the new law. However, it is expected to reduce the sentences of those already convicted and incarcerated, as the group’s dissolution would also mean the removal of its designation as a terrorist organization under Turkish law. Since the 1980s, the PKK has waged a violent campaign that has killed tens of thousands of people. The group’s campaign, aimed at establishing a so-called Kurdish state in southeastern Türkiye, posed the country’s greatest security threat for decades. Türkiye has significantly weakened the PKK’s influence across the region through cross-border operations in Iraq and Syria, while strict counterterrorism measures, particularly in the southeast where PKK militants operated from mountainous terrain, have substantially reduced the group’s presence.
Almost all parties in Parliament support the bill, with the exception of the Good Party (IP), while critics argue that it amounts to a concession to the PKK.
AK Party Deputy Chair Efkan Ala told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Wednesday that the law would not be delayed under any circumstances.
“Everything is proceeding as we expected. We plan to have the law approved before the recess,” said Ala, who served as interior minister toward the end of the “reconciliation process” launched more than a decade ago to resolve the PKK issue. That process failed after the PKK ended a brief lull in its activities and resumed attacks in southeastern Türkiye.
“By resolving this issue once and for all, Türkiye will move steadily toward its goals. The atmosphere and overall assessments are positive. There is strong political and public support. As a result of these efforts, Türkiye will break free from its shackles,” Ala said.
Devlet Bahçeli, chairperson of the government’s ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), who first proposed the initiative, was quoted by Turkish media on Wednesday as saying that lawmakers’ signatures had “certified a 1,000-year-old brotherhood.” Bahçeli was among the first to sign the draft law, and he has frequently portrayed the initiative as a way to “cement Turkish-Kurdish brotherhood,” referring to the PKK’s exploitation of disaffected members of the Kurdish community to recruit militants to its cause.
“This is a win for everyone, for the people of the Middle East, and a step toward disrupting global plots,” Bahçeli said.
For the Turkish state, the PKK is also viewed as a proxy for imperialist designs in the Middle East, serving as a separatist group seeking to undermine Türkiye’s sovereignty. This has been most evident in the support provided by Türkiye’s NATO ally, the United States, to the PKK’s Syrian wing, the YPG. Bahçeli told journalist Sinan Burhan that the terror-free Türkiye initiative was not a political move but rather “a state project.”
AK Party spokesperson Ömer Çelik, who spoke after a meeting of the party attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said Erdoğan instructed them to take the necessary steps to advance the initiative.
“Our president has given instructions regarding the point we have reached today in the efforts we have carried out so far on a terror-free Türkiye, the necessary steps to be taken to hopefully bring this entire process to a successful conclusion, the attitudes to be demonstrated, the tone to be used, and the unity and solidarity of the People’s Alliance. Naturally, he also reiterated his instructions regarding the coordination of state institutions on this matter. With the submission of the legislative proposal today, the most critical stage of a two-year process has been reached.
“I would particularly like to emphasize that the geography in which our unique homeland is located is full of extremely great risks and threats. Looking back not just far into history, but even at a 300-year history, our 100-year history, or our last 50 years, the threats we face are equivalent to those that other countries face over a period five to 10 times longer and at a lower intensity. In this context, great effort has been devoted to a terror-free Türkiye. The brotherhood of our state, distilled from thousands of years of history, has formed the core framework of all policies,” he said.
Any violation targeting Al-Aqsa Mosque is regarded as an attack on the values of the Turkish nation, Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Wednesday, stressing that regional crises, including the Gulf conflict, have not diverted Ankara’s focus from Gaza, Jerusalem and the broader Palestinian cause.
Fidan participated in a five-party meeting in Jordan on Wednesday, bringing together the foreign ministers of Türkiye, Egypt, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia to discuss regional developments.
Speaking to reporters in Amman, Fidan said Türkiye remains fully engaged on developments in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Al-Aqsa Mosque despite mounting tensions elsewhere in the region.
“The ongoing war in the Gulf and the regional and global repercussions of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz have not distracted us from Palestine, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Gaza or the West Bank,” Fidan said. “If our attention shifts elsewhere, Israel will find it easier to carry out its violations in Gaza, Al-Aqsa, Jerusalem and the West Bank.”
Fidan said ministers from nearly 20 Muslim-majority countries met in Jordan to discuss recent Israeli violations at Al-Aqsa Mosque and possible collective diplomatic responses.
He said participants exchanged views on practical diplomatic measures, while reaffirming Jordan’s historic custodianship of the Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.
Noting that Türkiye considers Al-Aqsa as one of the most sacred sites, Fidan said Ankara views any infringement against the mosque as a direct affront to the nation’s values.
“Any attack on Al-Aqsa is regarded as an attack on the values of our nation,” he said, adding that Türkiye would continue its diplomatic efforts to protect the holy site.
On the sidelines of the broader meeting, Fidan also attended the fifth ministerial gathering of what he called the “Group of Four” – Türkiye, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan.
The ministers held detailed discussions on efforts to implement the Gaza Peace Plan, with Fidan noting that Türkiye and Egypt continue to play key mediation roles.
He accused Israel of obstructing diplomatic efforts, saying the government had repeatedly undermined peace initiatives through actions that disregard international law.
“We discussed how to respond to Israel’s unlawful conduct and disregard for international norms,” Fidan said, adding that the ministers agreed on a number of proposals to present to their respective leaders.
Fidan also revealed that the four countries are working on a regional vision document aimed at establishing a long-term framework for peace, stability and security across the Middle East.
He argued that such a roadmap should have been developed years ago and said it would represent an important first step toward resolving the region’s chronic crises.
The foreign minister also criticized Israel’s approach to cease-fire negotiations, saying the international community has witnessed a pattern of using diplomatic platforms to advance what he described as illegal policies rather than pursue peace.
Fidan warned that failure to curb Israel’s expansionist policies would deepen instability beyond the Middle East and risk triggering wider international consequences.
While Hamas has fulfilled many of its commitments under internationally backed cease-fire proposals, he said, Israel has repeatedly derailed the process by introducing new conditions.
“Mediators have worked around the clock, but at every stage Israel has found another pretext while continuing to kill Palestinian children, bomb hospitals and demonstrate that it has no genuine commitment to peace,” Fidan said.
He called on the international community to move beyond statements of support and develop concrete measures to ensure the implementation of the Gaza Peace Plan.
Jordan hosted foreign ministers from a number of countries, from Egypt to Indonesia, as well as the secretary-general of the Arab League, for a ministerial-level meeting on developments in Palestine, particularly Jerusalem, a sacred city for multiple faiths whose eastern part is under Israeli occupation.
Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Hassan Al-Shaibani will visit Türkiye on Thursday, where he will meet his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, Turkish diplomatic sources announced on Wednesday. His talks with Fidan will focus on bilateral relations between the two neighbors and the issue of the YPG, the Syrian wing of the PKK terrorist group, which has long remained a security threat to Türkiye.
Diplomatic sources said Fidan and Al-Shaibani are expected to make a comprehensive assessment of multilateral efforts backed by Türkiye to restore permanent stability and security in Syria, where the decades-long oppressive Baathist regime was toppled in a revolution led by President Ahmed al-Sharaa in 2024. Türkiye initially pursued diplomatic efforts to end the civil war and began admitting refugees fleeing attacks by the Assad regime after those efforts failed. It also supported the Syrian opposition in liberating areas near the Turkish border from terrorist groups, including Daesh and the YPG, through landmark cross-border offensives during the civil war.
Sources said Fidan is also expected to highlight the improving counterterrorism capacity of post-Assad Syria and reiterate Türkiye’s commitment to cooperation with Syria in this field.
Fidan is also expected to reiterate Türkiye’s goal of further strengthening cooperation with Syria within an institutional framework, and the two ministers will discuss future high-level visits between the two countries. President al-Sharaa last visited Türkiye during the NATO summit in July, while Syria’s top diplomat has been a frequent visitor. Turkish officials, including Fidan, have also visited Syria, along with other ministers. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has praised the Syrian revolution on every relevant occasion, has not yet visited post-Assad Syria, although he recently hinted at a possible visit in a speech. Fidan is also expected to highlight the need to add a parliamentary dimension to bilateral relations, referring to the convening of Syria’s new Parliament last month, the first since the collapse of the Baathist regime.
On the YPG, the two ministers will discuss the progress of the group’s integration into the central government in northeastern Syria. Syria has integrated about 9,000 former YPG members into its national security institutions as part of a broader effort to unify the country’s armed forces, while appointing a former senior YPG official as a deputy defense minister, according to officials familiar with the process.
The integration marks one of the most significant steps in implementing an agreement between Damascus and the YPG aimed at dissolving the terrorist group. Roughly 5,000 former YPG members have joined the Syrian Defense Ministry, while another 4,000 have been incorporated into the Interior Ministry, officials said. Non-Syrian foreign members previously affiliated with the YPG have been removed from the country as part of the restructuring process.
Syrian authorities describe the process as a gradual, reciprocal approach under which security, administrative and political measures advance simultaneously to build confidence between the two sides.
Military integration has accelerated in recent months, while negotiations continue over local governance, political representation, constitutional reforms and language rights for Kurdish communities.
Fidan will also underline that Israel’s policies and actions aimed at undermining Syria’s efforts to maintain stability and security are unacceptable and will highlight the importance of Syria continuing its normalization efforts without being drawn into a new cycle of violence.
Diplomatic sources said that during the meeting, the Turkish foreign minister would also emphasize the need for the international community to take action to stop Israel’s attacks on Gaza despite the implementation of the second stage of the Gaza peace plan. He is also expected to stress the importance of ending Israel’s occupation in southern Lebanon for the sake of regional security and stability. Fidan will further underline Türkiye’s support for diplomatic efforts to ensure a cease-fire between the United States and Iran, secure the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz and achieve lasting peace.
Invoking a remorse law, former army captain Burkay Karatepe, who went on the run when the 2016 coup attempt failed, explained in detail how he was associated with the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), his visits to the United States to meet its leader, and the orders he received from fellow military infiltrators of the group to capture President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during the coup attempt.
Karatepe was apprehended last week in western Turkish province of Afyonkarahisar, almost exactly 10 years after he disappeared. He was brought to a courthouse in Muğla, the province where he and fellow putschist officers tried to kill Erdoğan during the coup attempt and was questioned.
He agreed to collaborate with authorities, hoping that his sentence would be reduced, and confessed how he was introduced to FETÖ in 1998, when he was a middle school student. His life story was typical of a FETÖ infiltrator, as he noted that he was supplied with questions and answers to a military school exam by FETÖ members beforehand. He confessed that FETÖ assigned him a civilian “handler” while he was at military school and he guided him and fellow military infiltrators throughout the school. He said he was later assigned another handler.
Karatepe said he was attending an official course to be a “staff officer” before the 2016 coup attempt and he joined fellow FETÖ infiltrators and civilian handlers for a meeting about one week before the attempt. He stated that they met at the residence of a handler in Istanbul. “The handler told us that there would be ‘an important activity’ soon, and Şükrü Seymen, a major, would command them for this ‘activity.’ “He ordered us to follow Seymen’s orders,” he said. Karatepe also claimed that he came across fellow students at staff officer course during the meeting and was not aware that they were also members of FETÖ beforehand. Karatepe told interrogators that he and other officers were later summoned by Col. Ahmet Zeki Gerehan (a fugitive FETÖ member now) at the military academy and Gerehan instructed him and others to “follow the orders” at the extraordinary meeting on July 15 afternoon. He said they were then ordered to leave for an air base in Izmir and boarded a military helicopter. He said Şükrü Seymen was there too, along with general Gökhan Şahin Sönmezateş, one of the planners of the assassination plot targeting Erdoğan. “Seymen asked us if any of us not from ‘hizmet’ and I found out everyone else there were also loyal to ‘hizmet’” using a Turkish name FETÖ calls itself. “Sönmezateş and Seymen told us that they were trying to locate the president and we were supposed to take him,” he said.
He also recounted how he met FETÖ leader Fetullah Gülen in his retreat in Pennsylvania, United States, while he was attending a military course in Columbus, Ohio, in 2012.
Karatepe also explained how he remained in hiding for a decade and received aid from next of kin and acquaintances. Members of the team of assassins were captured within a few days after they fled, in the countryside near Marmaris, while Karatepe disappeared and was believed to have fled abroad. Karatepe said he first traveled to Izmir when the coup attempt failed. He said he first took shelter in the residence of a couple originally from his hometown in Afyonkarahisar. He said he later contacted his father before leaving for his hometown, where he hid in a house owned by his grandfather. He said his next of kin gathered in that house and everyone was aware how he was involved in the coup attempt. Karatepe then met his father and he helped him hide in the countryside near his hometown.
He said he later moved to central Afyon and used a fake ID under the name of “Salih” and lied low there, working odd jobs, including at construction sites and as a junk collector.
One day after prosecutors sought the lifting of his parliamentary immunity, New Party (YP) lawmaker Veli Ağbaba is under renewed scrutiny in another investigation. Ağbaba’s brother was among the two suspects detained on Wednesday in a probe in the western city of Izmir focusing on alleged tender-rigging involving a subsidiary of the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality.
Prosecutors said Hür Ağbaba was detained in connection with the investigation into Egeşehir. The subsidiary’s manager and employees of two construction companies were already arrested in May on charges of tender-rigging. Veli Ağbaba is charged with the same offense, though details of his alleged connection to the case remain unclear.
On Tuesday, the Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s Office sent a request to the Justice Ministry seeking the lifting of Ağbaba’s parliamentary immunity after he recently switched from the Republican People’s Party (CHP) to the YP. The office said in a statement that Ağbaba is the subject of a bribery investigation.
The statement added that Ağbaba, acting on the instructions of former CHP Chair and YP founder Özgür Özel, allegedly obtained money from Gökhan Böcek, the son of former Antalya Mayor Muhittin Böcek, in exchange for securing the latter’s nomination in the municipal elections. Gökhan Böcek has already been arrested on corruption charges.
Ağbaba is also accused of influencing a tender issued by the CHP-run Çankaya Municipality in Ankara by helping award a waste collection contract to a company of his choice and collecting cash from municipalities in Izmir to be used in the 2024 election campaign.
Ağbaba, widely regarded as one of Özgür Özel’s closest political allies and expected to play a prominent role in the newly established YP, has been named in several judicial investigations and political controversies.
He has been mentioned in allegations related to the disputed CHP congress, municipal candidate selection, public tenders and appointments within CHP-run municipalities.
Gökhan Böcek alleged that Ağbaba, acting “on Özgür Özel’s instructions,” demanded TL 30 million (nearly $650,000) during his father’s nomination process for the Antalya mayoral candidacy.
Most recently, Ağbaba’s name resurfaced during the corruption investigation into the Etimesgut Municipality in Ankara. The investigation led to the detention of 55 people, including Mayor Erdal Beşikçioğlu. Prosecutors are examining the appointment of Deputy Mayor Mutlu Kerimoğlu, who has ties to Ağbaba, Beşikçioğlu and former Bakırköy Mayor Bülent Kerimoğlu. According to claims cited by pro-CHP sources, Kerimoğlu was appointed deputy mayor at Ağbaba’s personal request.
Etimesgut corruption
In related news, media outlets reported that corruption in the CHP-run Etimesgut Municipality was not limited to bribes allegedly paid in exchange for building and zoning permits. The Sabah newspaper on Wednesday published a report detailing the investigation into allegedly inflated municipal bills.
In one instance, investigators found that the municipality paid TL 100 million to organize an event that would have cost at most TL 8 million. Serkan Kozan, a municipal bureaucrat cooperating with authorities, helped expose what investigators describe as widespread corruption within the municipality.
Kozan told investigators that Deputy Mayor Taylan Özgüven encouraged staff to engage in corruption.
“Help yourselves to whatever you can. We are here for another five years,” he reportedly told staff, referring to the municipality’s term in office.
Kozan also told investigators that municipal bureaucrats would not approve permits without first receiving bribes and that public tenders were routinely awarded to companies selected in advance by municipal officials.
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