Turkey’s main opposition leader Özgür Özel has said President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is experiencing in an internal power struggle that has turned into what he called a “fight for the throne,” Turkish Minute reported.
Özel, who leads the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), made the remarks as he pushed back against claims in the pro-government media and on social media that he had cut a deal with İstanbul’s top prosecutor and held back damaging information.
The CHP leader said he did not want his party to be used as a tool in what he called “throne wars” inside the AKP.
The AKP has ruled Turkey since 2002 under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who served as prime minister until 2014 and then as president, dominating Turkish politics for more than two decades.
Özel’s comments centered on Akın Gürlek, the chief public prosecutor in İstanbul, who has become a symbol for the opposition of Turkey’s politicized justice system.
Özel said information and allegations about Gürlek were brought to the CHP from people inside the AKP and that his party submitted what it had to prosecutors rather than using it for political theater.
The CHP filed a criminal complaint in Ankara accusing Gürlek of unlawful income and suspicious property deals, allegations Gürlek has not publicly answered in the reports cited by Turkish media.
Özel said the real issue was not whether rival camps wanted him to air claims at a time and in a way that would serve their interests, but whether the state would record the allegations and investigate them.
He portrayed the document flow as evidence of a struggle among “children, sons-in-law, ministers and former ministers” inside the ruling party.
Turkey’s opposition says the government is using courts and prosecutors to crack down on CHP-run municipalities after the party’s wins in the March 2024 local elections.
