Turkey’s justice minister announced on Wednesday that prosecutors have opened an investigation into main opposition leader Özgür Özel over comments he made criticizing President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkish Minute reported.
Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç said the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office initiated the probe after Özel, leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), made what he described as “insulting remarks” about the president.
“The CHP chairman’s words, which exceeded the bounds of respect, are an open attack on the will that represents our 86 million citizens,” Tunç said in a statement on X. “Politics should be conducted within the limits of decency and morality. This offensive language has gone beyond a mere matter of tone, and our nation will never allow the politics of slander and defamation.”
Özel’s remarks targeting Erdoğan came after visiting jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu in Marmara Prison in Silivri.
He addressed speculation that Aydın Mayor Özlem Çerçioğlu in western Turkey, a senior CHP figure, would defect to Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Erdoğan had hinted at new members joining during a rally on Wednesday, saying, “Our family is growing and getting stronger. … Let’s see how many people from Aydın are here.”
Speaking to reporters, Özel addressed Erdoğan directly due to reports about his party’s mayor, saying: “From now on, when you lay your head on the pillow before you go to sleep, you know that sense of inner peace? How can you say, ‘I am honest, I am human, I am ready to sleep,’ or ‘I have inner peace?’”
Çerçioğlu resigned from the CHP on Thursday and joined the AKP at a ceremony in Ankara marking the party’s 24th anniversary.
In his statement to reporters Özel accused Erdoğan of pressuring CHP mayors by linking them to businessman Aziz İhsan Aktaş, implicated in an expanding corruption probe targeting the İstanbul Municipality and claimed CHP municipalities faced prosecution over their ties to Aktaş while AKP-run municipalities with more contracts were spared.
He said Erdoğan was threatening CHP mayors to join his party or go to jail.
Also on Thursday, Erdoğan filed a lawsuit against Özel seeking 1 million Turkish lira (about $24,500) in damages for “emotional harm” and lodged a criminal complaint for “insulting the president.”
Thousands of people in Turkey face investigations, many under the threat of imprisonment, over alleged insults targeting Erdoğan or the AKP. Insulting the president carries a prison sentence of up to four years, which can be increased if the remarks are made through mass media. Critics of the government can face up to two years in prison, with most cases stemming from social media posts by Erdoğan opponents.
Özel is already facing multiple investigations as part of what the CHP describes as an ongoing crackdown on the party’s municipalities.
The investigations into the CHP municipalities began in October 2024 with the arrest of Esenyurt Mayor Ahmet Özer and have since expanded to include several districts across İstanbul and most recently, Adana and Adıyaman.
The pressure intensified after the CHP’s sweeping victory in the March 2024 local elections in which the AKP suffered its worst electoral defeat in two decades, losing control of key cities to the opposition.
