An Ankara prosecutor’s office has launched an investigation into the main opposition CHP’s party grand convention held in 2023, which was deemed “shady” by President Erdoğan. In the congress, previous leader Kilicdaroglu was defeated by Özel following calls for a change within the party.
Former CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu and former CHP parliamentary group leader Akif Hamzacebi have been summoned as witnesses regarding claims that votes were allegedly cast in exchange for money. Kilicdaroglu will not testify, but urged Ozel to explain the charges levied by the Chief Prosecutor.
Also, Turkish police detained 10 senior officials of district municipalities in Istanbul on Tuesday over their alleged links to Kurdish militants, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported, widening a crackdown on opposition-held districts in the city.
The detainees include the deputy mayors of the districts of Kartal and Atasehir, along with eight district municipal council members, Anadolu reported. All suspects are members of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party, or CHP. They were detained on suspicion of appointing people with alleged connections to Kurdish militants to municipal positions, thereby allowing the Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, to infiltrate the municipalities, Anadolu reported.
CHP Chairman Özgür Özel answered Halk TV’s İsmail Saymaz’s questions about the current crackdown by judiciary, believed to be ordered by President Erdogan, addressing dubious allegations about the party to operations against municipalities.
Özel said of the “urban alliance” operations carried out in municipalities in Istanbul this morning, “It is an investigation that encompasses many municipalities to march on the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM).” Özel said, “As far as I can see, they will conduct an investigation covering many municipalities in order to move towards the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality. I believed in it together with Beşiktaş; I think they are moving towards it step by step.” He means that the Erdogan regime intends to build up a case to ban CHP mayor Imamoglu from politics.
Turkish experts claim Erdogan has a second purpose: Through judicial action, CHP could be forced an extraordinary convention to renew the a.m. convention, where former chair Kilicdaroglu is certain to make another bid. The whole process could last more than a year, in the meantime CHP will not be able to agitate for early elections, granting Erdogan more time to arrange a new constitution to grant him a third run at the presidency.
Linking CHP municipalities to PKK terror is more insidious, because Turkey’s chief prosecutor could appeal to Constitutional Court to ban the party.
Press sources, PATurkey
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