Özgür Özel, the leader of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), has elicited sharp criticism from politicians, legal experts, journalists and human rights advocates over remarks that appeared to target people who had to flee the country due to a government crackdown in the aftermath of a failed coup in 2016, Turkish Minute reported.
Özel made the comments at a rally in the northwestern city of Edirne over the weekend, where he accused the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of using the judiciary to suppress political opposition and described an operation targeting the İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality that led to the arrest of city’s popular mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, as a “coup.”
Addressing the crowd near the border with Greece, he said those responsible for what he called unlawful investigations targeting the CHP should not be allowed to flee accountability in the future.
“People of Edirne, keep a close watch on the Evros River. After [the] July 15 [coup], they caught 2,000 FETÖ members here in a single year, remember?” Özel said, using a derogatory acronym created by the Turkish government to describe the faith-based Gülen movement.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been targeting followers of the Gülen movement, inspired by the late Muslim cleric Fethullah Gülen, since corruption investigations in December 2013 implicated him as well as some members of his family and inner circle.
Dismissing the investigations as a Gülenist coup and a conspiracy against his government, Erdoğan began to target the movement’s members. He designated the movement as a terrorist organization in May 2016 and intensified the crackdown on it following an abortive putsch in July of the same year that he accused Gülen of masterminding. The movement strongly denies involvement in the coup attempt or any terrorist activity.
Referring to those behind the ongoing operations against CHP-run municipalities, he added: “When the time comes, these coup plotters, too, will try to flee from Edirne across the Evros River to Alexandroupoli. This city is entrusted to you; guard the border well.”
Critics said Özel’s language echoed narratives used after the failed coup, when tens of thousands of people were arrested or dismissed from their jobs and many had to flee Turkey amid mass purges.
They warned that such rhetoric risks legitimizing collective suspicion and undermining the principle of due process, even when aimed at criticizing government abuse.
Parallels with post-coup repression
In the years that followed the coup attempt, more than 130,000 public servants were dismissed by emergency decrees, tens of thousands were jailed and many others fled Turkey after passports were canceled and legal safeguards collapsed.
The Evros River became a symbol of that exodus, with families, including women and children, attempting dangerous crossings into Greece. Some people died during those attempts.
Özel drew a parallel between that period and the current wave of investigations targeting opposition-run municipalities.
According to a CHP report published in late October, 16 CHP mayors are currently jailed and 13 municipalities have been placed under government-appointed trustees following the party’s sweeping victory in the March 2024 local elections. The party describes the prosecutions as a “judicial coup” aimed at reversing its electoral gains. The government denies any political motivation, saying all cases are handled in line with the law.
Critics say that by invoking the Evros crossings in this context, Özel blurred the line between accountability and collective blame.
‘Babies died in the Evros’
Human rights defender Cemre Birand was among the first to respond, saying Özel’s remarks ignored the human cost of past repression.
“Babies died in the Evros,” Birand said. “Özgür Özel, what kind of language is this?”
Liberal Party leader Zübeyir Gülabi accused Özel of adopting the same mindset he claims to oppose. “Özgür Özel and the CHP have never truly believed in the rule of law,” he said. “If CHP mayors are being prosecuted the way they are, and you complain about this judiciary, then the people you call ‘FETÖ members’ were also fleeing that same militant judiciary — the one you yourself support. At most, you end up acting as the AKP’s border guard in Edirne.”
Former ambassador and opposition Future Party (GP) MP Kani Torun questioned the political message behind the remarks. “As the leader of the main opposition, we would expect you to promise the rule of law if you come to power,” he wrote.
“Will you govern by offering emergency rule and a lynch culture? If you don’t clarify these words, we will assume this is your real intention,” he added.
Journalist Oktay Yaman said that having reviewed hundreds of asylum files from Germany’s Federal Office for Migration, he can say that tens of thousands of people — including children — had no link to any coup.
“Publicly condemning them as traitors without trial can only be described as becoming a useful apparatus of the regime. … The law will one day be necessary for you as well,” he said.
Former judge Sevil Ay pointed to personal tragedies linked to Evros crossings. She cited the case of a dismissed judge who drowned with his wife while attempting to flee after being unable to find work. “We do not wish the same death on anyone — not on perpetrators, not on those who applaud repression. Because you are captive to a vindictive mindset, you are incapable of governing the country,” she said.
Lawyer and human rights activist Eren Keskin also said Özel’s remarks were “such a wrong way of speaking,” noting that hundreds of people had fled Turkey because of the lack of democracy, ill-treatment, torture and restrictions on freedom of expression and organization, and that some disappeared in the Evros while trying to escape.
Independent lawmaker and former AKP MP Mustafa Yeneroğlu issued a detailed warning, urging Özel to uphold universal legal principles.
“Defending the rule of law is not only about protecting the rights of those who stand with us, but also about safeguarding the right to a fair trial for those facing the most serious accusations,” Yeneroğlu wrote.
He said many of those who crossed the Evros River did so because they had no access to fair trials and reminded Özel that rulings by the European Court of Human Rights have documented systemic violations in post-coup prosecutions.
“There may have been coup plotters who crossed the Evros,” he added. “But it is also an undeniable fact that tens of thousands of people fled in desperation together with their children.”
Many critics from across Turkey’s political and civil society spectrum also stated that the CHP leader’s remarks ignored the long history of people who died trying to cross the Evros River while fleeing repression under successive governments. They recalled that over decades the river became an escape route not only for followers of the Gülen movement after 2016 but earlier for leftists, Kurds, dissidents and activists targeted by different waves of political persecution.
Several commentators cited the death of those who drowned while attempting to flee, including 22-year-old chess champion Mahir Mete Kul, arguing that framing the Evros solely as a route for “coup plotters” erased the experiences of thousands who fled because of torture, unfair trials and systematic rights violations.
