Turkey’s main opposition leader on Wednesday accused President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of shielding ruling party members from corruption charges, invoking graft raids in 2013 that targeted sons of ministers, as his party faces an expanding crackdown over allegations of corruption.
Speaking at a rally in İstanbul’s Sancaktepe district on Wednesday, Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel rejected recent corruption allegations against CHP-run municipalities, describing them as politically motivated and pointing to the 2013 operations in which cash was discovered inside shoeboxes at the home of a state bank executive.
“I cannot tolerate a baklava box, but you have a history of shoeboxes,” Özel said, referring to a recent raid on a CHP-run municipality where police reported finding 110,000 euros concealed in a baklava box. “You are the one who defended thieves, who refused to send them to the supreme court [to be tried] and who disgraced this state,” he added, addressing Erdoğan directly.
He also referenced a wiretapped phone conversation that surfaced after the 2013 corruption raids, allegedly between Erdoğan and his son Bilal. In the leaked recording, widely circulated online in early 2014, a voice purported to be that of Erdoğan instructs his son to “zero the money.” The government at the time said the audio was fabricated. “We haven’t forgotten the person who scolded his son for not being able to zero the money,” Özel said at the rally.
Özel’s remarks come amid a sweeping investigation that has led to the arrest of 14 CHP mayors and the detention or questioning of more than 500 people since October, including lawyers, municipal staff and businesspeople. Authorities say the probe targets a broad network of corruption. CHP officials say the investigation aims to discredit elected opposition figures.
In his speech Özel said the CHP would investigate any proven wrongdoing within its ranks but would not yield to what he described as politically driven accusations. “If anyone has done wrong, they will face the consequences. But we will not sacrifice even one friend to slander,” he said.
During the rally Özel also referenced Erdoğan’s previous statements in defense of ministers implicated in the 2013 scandal, accusing the president of enabling corruption by refusing to allow proceedings against them.
That case, known as the December 17–25 operation, initially led to the resignation of several ministers but was later dropped. Hundreds of prosecutors and police officers involved in the investigations were removed from their posts. Judicial leadership shifted following the 2014 elections to the High Council of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) in which candidates supported by the ruling party and secular nationalist circles prevailed.
CHP figures at the time criticized the December 2013 corruption investigations as being driven by members of the Gülen movement, which the government designated as a terrorist group in May 2016. The party called for accountability in principle but refrained from backing the prosecutors involved.
Critics have pointed to the irony of the CHP now facing sweeping corruption allegations from a judiciary it once helped consolidate. While the party distanced itself from the 2013 probes, its decision to not pursue the large-scale corruption alleged in the investigations — combined with the alignment of some secular judicial blocs with pro-government candidates in the 2014 judicial board elections — ultimately contributed to Erdoğan’s control of a judiciary that now targets its own ranks.
Many of the police officers and prosecutors who carried out the December 17–25 corruption investigations are now either in prison or living in exile, having been purged in the years that followed as part of the government’s campaign against the Gülen movement. While the CHP initially condemned the corruption revealed in the probe, it distanced itself from the investigators due to their alleged Gülenist ties and ultimately refrained from defending them as the judiciary was overhauled and the cases were dismissed.
In recent days pro-government lawmakers have circulated imagery of baklava boxes branded with CHP logos, drawing a contrast with the shoeboxes seized during the 2013 probe. Among them, ruling party MP Osman Gökçek shared a video showing a tray marked “Bribe for the CHP” in response to the operation targeting the CHP-run municipality of southern Antalya province’s Manavgat district.
President Erdoğan has rejected accusations of political interference, saying the courts are acting independently and that anyone involved in corruption will be held accountable regardless of party affiliation.
The CHP has pledged to defend its mayors and challenge what it calls unlawful detentions. Özel warned that the government’s actions risk undermining democratic norms. “This is a struggle for democracy,” he said. “The people will win.”