3rd Week of February: The Judicial Whip
In February, Turkey witnessed that pressure on opposition groups was steadily increasing and that efforts to make society speak with one voice were on the rise. Both TÜSAİD (the Turkish Industry and Business Association), known as the “Bosses’ Club” for its oppressive politics, and journalists, artists, and opinion leaders—including members of the Peoples’ Democratic Congress established in 2011 to support the peace process—suffered from policies of repression and intimidation.
In his effort to remove obstacles in his path to being re-elected as president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan intensified his attempts to neutralize Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu—who is expected to be the CHP’s presidential candidate—through various lawsuits and investigations. It was, of course, a complete irony that Erdoğan, who failed to produce his university diploma during his own presidential candidacy, initiated a fake diploma investigation against Ekrem İmamoğlu.
Erdoğan began to create a judicial storm across Turkey through Akın Gürlek, whom he appointed as Istanbul’s Chief Public Prosecutor. It has become clear that through Gürlek, Erdoğan not only launched a wave of accusations and investigations but also dictated decisions in place of judges during this process.
What befell Ayşe Barım—whom Erdoğan had labeled as the organizer of the Gezi Trial and arrested as a rebel without any evidence—serves as further proof of this. Although the Criminal Court of First Instance ordered her release following her lawyer’s objection, she remained in prison due to the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s objection. By issuing a new arrest warrant for Barım to prevent her release until the objection was resolved, the Prosecutor’s Office once again revealed the distressing state of the judiciary in Turkey.
A development that shook the business world and markets was the initiation of an investigation—and subsequently, the detention by police and appearance in court—of TÜSİAD President of the Board of Directors Orhan Turan and High Advisory Council President Ömer Arif Aras, due to their criticisms of the government’s economic and legal policies. On February 13, 2025, both Turan and Aras had criticized the government’s economic policies and its practices regarding the judiciary at the association’s general assembly. Following a group meeting in which Erdoğan’s party delivered an answer laced with insults against TÜSİAD, the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office initiated an ex officio investigation against both individuals on charges of “attempting to affect a fair trial” and “publicly disseminating misleading information.” As part of the investigation, Turan and Aras were escorted by police to the courthouse and gave their statements to the prosecutor. After their statements, the on-duty peace criminal court ruled that both should be released under a travel ban prohibiting them from leaving the country. President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated that TÜSİAD had “exceeded its limits” in its criticisms and claimed that the association was interfering in politics.
The policy of repression and intimidation extended not only to the Kurds but also to leftist politics that stood close to them. On February 18, an investigation initiated by the Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office against the Peoples’ Democratic Congress (HDK) led to an operation targeting 60 people across 10 provinces. In these operations, 52 people were detained. In a statement from the Prosecutor’s Office, findings from a report prepared by the Counter-Terrorism Department regarding the HDK were cited. The report contained allegations that the HDK is “a front organization with a legal appearance and an alternative parliament to the Grand National Assembly, whose components are legal extensions of the terrorist organizations from the United People’s Revolutionary Movement front, that their assembly is identical with the KCK charter, and that they organize the public sphere by staging protest marches, press conferences, rallies, and similar events in accordance with the instructions of the PKK-KCK organization.” The statement also noted that detention orders were issued for 60 suspects, with a synchronized operation organized from 06:00 in the morning to apprehend them. Among those detained were executives and members of the DEM Party, the Labor Party (EMEP), the Socialist Renewal Party (SYKP), the Green Left Party, and the HDK, as well as journalists and artists. Thirty-five individuals were referred to court on charges seeking their detention, while 13 were referred on charges seeking house arrest. Of those brought before the court, 30 were detained, 13 were placed under house arrest, and 7 were given judicial control. Among those detained were journalists Elif Akgül, Ercüment Akdeniz, Yıldız Tar, and EMEP Istanbul Provincial Chairperson Sema Barbaros.
The government also intensified its efforts to undermine the “City Consensus” policy—which fostered cooperation in local governments between the DEM Party and the CHP—through judicial means. An indictment was prepared for Istanbul Esenyurt Mayor Ahmet Özer, who was arrested about a month ago and replaced by a trustee. Ahmet Özer, for whom up to 15 years in prison was sought, was one of the active figures in the peace process.
The latest development of the week was the convening of the AKP’s 8th Ordinary Congress. The biggest surprise of the congress was that Professor Serap Yazıcı—who holds views against the “Turkish-style Presidential” system and, together with her late spouse Ergun Özbudun, engaged in democratic constitutional work—accepted a position on the AKP Central Decision and Executive Board during the congress. The fact that Yazıcı, who resigned from the Gelecek Party—where she had been elected as an MP just a day before the congress, stating “I saw the need”—accepted to join the ranks of the AKP in a period when pressure and oppression were increasing on all segments of society, caused great astonishment and disappointment among democratic circles.
Entering the congress once again as the sole candidate, Erdoğan delivered a lesson on democracy in his speech and leveled criticisms at the opposition—and at TÜSİAD in particular—stating: “We have taken significant steps in the business world as well. We stood by tradespeople and industrialists. We spread capital across Anatolia. Recent debates show that some maladies persist. Those who rely on the asymmetric relationships established with Western powers cannot accept that the old Turkey is gone. A group within the business world, which amassed capital during the AK Party era, is attempting to reintroduce a dirty opposition mindset. Their only concern is to recoup their losses from the state treasury. The era of conducting off-the-record politics is now over. In the new Turkey, there is no place for either an underground economy or underground politics.”
It is also worth recalling that the repressive policies against the Gülen Movement—whom the regime continues to view as its greatest enemy—are proceeding unabated. An operation was organized against Maydanoz Döner, one of Turkey’s widespread döner chains, which had been removed from public service by a decree-law and targeted on the grounds that it employed people who were prohibited from working or opening bank accounts. The company had its assets seized on the grounds of financing terrorism and was placed under trusteeship, while 353 people were also detained.
In this period—when Trump has steered America away from democratic principles and values and closer to Russia, and when Europe, preoccupied with its own concerns, has become increasingly indifferent to events in Turkey—it does not seem possible for Turkey to return to a democratic order through its own internal dynamics. The steps taken by Erdoğan appear to indicate that the election expected to be held in 2027 will become entirely a mere show, much like those in Russia, Azerbaijan, and Venezuela.
