{"id":143311,"date":"2026-08-10T18:08:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-10T18:08:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/143311\/"},"modified":"2026-08-10T18:08:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-10T18:08:18","slug":"turkey-jails-new-partys-provincial-chair-in-bribery-probe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/143311\/","title":{"rendered":"Turkey jails New Party\u2019s provincial chair in bribery probe"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

A Turkish court on Saturday jailed pending trial \u0130lksen \u00d6zalper, the opposition New Party\u2019s provincial chair in Western Manisa province, on bribery and organized crime charges, marking the first such action against one of the party\u2019s provincial leaders since it was founded in July.<\/p>\n

\u00d6zalper was detained at her home in Manisa on August 5, after which police searched the property. After questioning in Manisa, she was taken to Ankara, where a magistrate approved a request for her pretrial detention on August 8.<\/p>\n

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office is investigating \u00d6zalper on accusations of bribery and membership in a criminal organization formed for financial gain.<\/p>\n

The file was opened by the \u0130stanbul Chief Public Prosecutor\u2019s Office and transferred to Ankara on jurisdictional grounds. It draws on testimony given under Turkey\u2019s \u201ceffective remorse\u201d provisions by suspended U\u015fak mayor \u00d6zkan Yal\u0131m, reports from Turkey\u2019s Financial Crimes Investigation Board (MASAK) and phone traffic records, the S\u00f6zc\u00fc daily reported. The \u201ceffective remorse\u201d provisions allow a person accused of a crime to provide information in exchange for the prospect of a reduced sentence.<\/p>\n

Manisa Metropolitan Municipality adviser Demirhan G\u00f6za\u00e7an, his driver, An\u0131l Demir, and Cem Y\u00fczer, general manager of a company owned by the \u015eehzadeler district municipality, were previously jailed pending trial in the same investigation. They face bribery and organized crime charges.<\/p>\n

\u00d6zalper previously headed the Manisa branch of the then-main opposition Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP). Manisa is also the home province and parliamentary constituency of New Party leader \u00d6zel.<\/p>\n

The CHP won 37.8 percent of the vote in Turkey\u2019s March 2024 local elections, ahead of the 35.5 percent secured by President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan\u2019s Justice and Development Party (AKP). It was the first time in 22 years that the AKP had failed to finish first nationwide. The CHP retained \u0130stanbul, Ankara and \u0130zmir and captured municipalities governed by Erdo\u011fan\u2019s allies.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors began a series of corruption and terrorism investigations into CHP municipalities later that year. Dozens of mayors, municipal officials and businesspeople have since been detained or jailed on accusations including bribery, bid-rigging, embezzlement, extortion and terrorism-related offenses.<\/p>\n

The most prominent case concerns \u0130stanbul Mayor Ekrem \u0130mamo\u011flu, Erdo\u011fan\u2019s main electoral rival. Jailed since March 2025, \u0130mamo\u011flu is the central defendant in a corruption trial involving 407 people, most of them employees of the \u0130stanbul Metropolitan Municipality. He denies the charges.<\/p>\n

Separate litigation later reached the CHP leadership.<\/p>\n

On May 21 an Ankara appeals court issued an interim order annulling the party congress held on November 4 and 5, 2023, removing \u00d6zel and the executive board and reinstating former chairman Kemal K\u0131l\u0131\u00e7daro\u011flu. The court cited alleged vote-buying at the congress, where \u00d6zel had defeated K\u0131l\u0131\u00e7daro\u011flu. \u00d6zel and his supporters rejected the ruling as judicial interference.<\/p>\n

Human Rights Watch\u00a0called<\/a>\u00a0the order an unusual interference in a party election and part of an effort to sideline the opposition. Justice Minister Ak\u0131n G\u00fcrlek said the decision would strengthen public trust in democracy. Police used tear gas to enter CHP headquarters in Ankara on May 24 and removed members of \u00d6zel\u2019s team.<\/p>\n

After weeks of dispute, \u00d6zel and 90 other lawmakers resigned from the CHP on July 24 and\u00a0established the New Party<\/a>. Their departure gave the New Party 91 seats in Turkey\u2019s 600-member parliament, making it the largest opposition group and the second-largest party after the AKP, which holds 277 seats. The CHP was reduced to 44 seats, while the Peoples\u2019 Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) has 56.<\/p>\n

On August 5, the day \u00d6zalper was detained, prosecutors\u00a0asked<\/a>\u00a0parliament to lift the immunity of \u00d6zel and New Party lawmaker Veli A\u011fbaba over allegations that they accepted bribes while serving in the CHP.<\/p>\n

Opposition parties and rights groups argue that the criminal cases aim to keep President Recep Tayyip Erdo\u011fan\u2019s elected rivals from power.<\/p>\n

This article is republished from\u00a0Turkish Minute<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Turkish court on Saturday jailed pending trial \u0130lksen \u00d6zalper, the opposition New Party\u2019s provincial chair in Western…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":143312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[83],"tags":[12820,2031,425,68555,68556,429,28727,430,131,132,155],"class_list":["post-143311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-stockholm","tag-bribery","tag-crackdown-on-opposition","tag-democracy","tag-financial-crimes-investigation-authority-masak","tag-ilksen-ozalper","tag-oppression","tag-ozkan-yalim","tag-republican-peoples-party-chp","tag-stockholm","tag-sweden","tag-turkey"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/117072554159485501","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}