The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened a new investigation into claims of Turkey links in the Jeffrey Epstein case after a Turkish opposition lawmaker said US records included allegations that girls from Turkey were taken to Epstein’s island, Turkish Minute reported, citing Deutsche Welle’s Turkish service.
The prosecutors launched the probe on December 23, following an X post a day earlier by Turhan Çömez, deputy parliamentary group chair of the nationalist opposition İYİ (Good) Party, who claimed documents released by the US Department of Justice said girls from Turkey were taken to the island and faced difficulties because they did not speak English.
Sources cited by DW said the prosecutor’s office is reviewing Turkey-related sections in millions of documents released by the Justice Department and is looking for evidence of suspects and possible Turkey-based links.
The new inquiry follows an earlier complaint filed on January 16, 2024, by a Turkish nonprofit that focuses on children and women. The group asked prosecutors to examine claims that Epstein’s network had connections in Turkey and that children from Turkey may have been drawn into exploitation.
Over that complaint, prosecutors issued a decision of non-prosecution on June 16, 2025, saying the file contained no evidence that the alleged crimes were committed in Turkey.
As part of that earlier inquiry, the prosecutor’s office heard testimony from one person, a woman identified as Banu K., who lives in the US and was named in the complaint. She said she had no connection to the Epstein case and that she was not the Banu K. referenced in the Epstein documents, adding that she lived in California, not Florida, and submitted a court decision from the US District Court for the Southern District of New York to corroborate her claims.
The nonprofit’s lawyer, Hediye Gökçe Baykal, told DW that new evidence has emerged through the Justice Department’s latest releases and that the group will appeal the June 2025 non-prosecution decision and seek a broader investigation.
Baykal said the earlier probe appeared to be limited to the single name mentioned in the complaint and did not include steps prosecutors could take on their own to identify other potential suspects. She said effective investigations into human trafficking and child sexual exploitation often require broader steps because perpetrators may operate through organized structures and links can surface only through deeper inquiries. Baykal also cited Turkey’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, saying authorities should act even when there is serious suspicion, not only after evidence is finalized.
The renewed focus in Turkey comes after the Justice Department released new Epstein records on January 30 under the Epstein Files Transparency Act, publishing more than 3 million pages of investigative records, 180,000 images and more than 2,000 videos compiled by federal and state law enforcement agencies. The department said the files are heavily redacted to protect victims’ privacy and do not include new indictments or criminal charges and warned that some documents may not be electronically searchable because they are embedded in non-indexed PDF files.
Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) lawmaker Sevda Erdan Kılıç submitted a parliamentary motion in January 2024 to inquire into Turkey-related revelations in the Epstein case. Kılıç said the disclosures underscored the need for Turkey to examine potential domestic connections.
Parliament has yet to debate the proposal.
“The Epstein file is not only America’s file, it is the file of an international darkness,” Kılıç said in a statement on social media. “And yes, this darkness has links extending to Turkey.”
The latest release revived debate over whether Epstein’s network trafficked minors from Turkey, particularly children who went missing after earthquakes in 1999 in northwestern Turkey that killed more than 17,000 people.
On Tuesday, Turkey’s Center for Combating Disinformation (DMM) said claims circulating on social media that “more than 10,000” children go missing each year in Turkey and that nearly 100,000 have gone missing over eight years are false and based on official data taken out of context. The center said the statistics cited refer to children for whom an official missing-person report was filed and who were later found and that no official data are published under a category of “missing and not found” children.
CEO of pro-government holding in the files
Ahmet Mücahit Ören, chief executive officer of the pro-government İhlas Holding, appeared in a 2004 email exchange with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s longtime associate.
“I need to learn more from you to be more ‘naughty,’” Ören wrote in an email to Maxwell as part of an exchange seeking business networking assistance involving British entrepreneur Richard Branson.
Ören denied wrongdoing in a statement on X, saying he read the claims “with laughter and astonishment,” adding, “Anyone who has knowledge of the English language understands what that email was written for.”
Robert College email shows 2014 fundraising request
The disclosures also include a November 7, 2014, email sent by Landon C. Thomas Jr., then a New York Times journalist and a member of Robert College’s American Board of Trustees, seeking advice from Epstein on fundraising for the İstanbul-based school, according to media reports.
In his emails to Epstein, Thomas described the school’s mission and Turkey’s political climate at the time, with Epstein responding briefly and suggesting a future meeting.
In a statement on Sunday Robert College said it learned of the email with the latest release and said Thomas “was not, and has never been, an administrator or employee” of the institution, while acknowledging his board membership at the time of the correspondence.
“The personal views expressed in the letter do not reflect the views of Robert College or its Board of Trustees,” the statement said. The school added that it did not accept donations from Epstein or from anyone connected to him.
Thomas left The New York Times in 2019 following ethics concerns related to his social connections with Epstein and also departed from the Robert College board that year.
Rixos responds to spa training emails
According to the released emails, Lesley Groff, who served as Epstein’s assistant, and managers at Rixos Antalya’s The Land of Legends spa facility discussed arranging a short-term training program for a woman described as working at “Jeffrey Epstein’s private spa as a personal masseuse.”
One email sent to Rixos Antalya’s owner Fettah Tamince by Dubai-based businessman Sultan Bin Sulayem said, “Dear Fettah, attached is a copy of her passport. She works at our friend Jeffrey Epstein’s private spa as a personal masseuse. It would be appreciated if you could arrange for her internship at Rixos Antalya Spa to gain better experience.”
Replies from a Rixos staff member outlined a 10-day training program at The Land of Legends Spa and requested passport copies and travel details.
Rixos Hotels said in a statement on Monday that the matter involved “a limited information-sharing support provided within the scope of professional training, upon the request of an international group.”
The company said the process complied with ethical and legal standards and that social media posts circulating on the issue were taken out of context. It described such professional training arrangements as routine in the international tourism sector.
Convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein died in a New York jail in August 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, ending the criminal case against him but not the investigations and civil litigation that followed. His former associate Ghislaine Maxwell was later convicted in US federal court for helping recruit and abuse underage girls and is serving a prison sentence.
The renewed global attention in recent days, triggered by the new dump, also produced immediate political and institutional aftershocks in Europe.
In Slovakia, foreign policy adviser Miroslav Lajčák resigned after he was linked in the newly released materials to discussions about a 2018 trip involving Epstein. In Norway, Crown Princess Mette-Marit issued a public apology over her past interactions with Epstein as Norwegian media reported new details from the release. In Britain, the Metropolitan Police Service said it is reviewing multiple reports of alleged misconduct in public office after the latest US release prompted new scrutiny over contacts between Epstein and former minister and diplomat Peter Mandelson.
In Sweden, Joanna Rubinstein stepped down as chair of Sweden for UNHCR after reports based on the new materials said she and her family visited Epstein in 2012 and later emailed him thanking him for his hospitality.
The new documents increase scrutiny of how Epstein built access to political and business circles, with many claims suggesting that the financier was an intelligence operative running a “honeytrap” operation to blackmail individuals in the higher echelons.
