Surge in investigations against CHP: Target is İstanbul’s İmamoğlu

The series of investigations against Türkiye’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) began on February 10th with a probe into allegations that the 2023 Party Congress was “tainted.”

On February 11th, CHP members woke up to news of deputy mayors and municipal council members being detained across several Istanbul districts. The pretext was allegations that the outlawed PKK had infiltrated local governments through the “Urban Consensus” agreement discussed before the March 31, 2024 local elections, which CHP won in Istanbul.

Once again, Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu appeared to be the real target.

The government’s contradiction is striking: On one hand, it facilitates meetings between DEM Party representatives and Abdullah Öcalan while sending envoys to Erbil to gauge the Iraqi Kurdistan Regional Government’s stance, all in an effort to convince the PKK to disarm through negotiation. On the other hand, the judiciary is criminalizing the “urban consensus” arrangement from the 2024 local elections.

The arrest of CHP’s Esenyurt Mayor Ahmet Özer and subsequent appointment of a trustee fits this same pattern. It’s hardly coincidental that corruption allegations against the detained CHP Mayor of Beşiktaş, Rıza Akpolat, are being linked to both Özer and a contractor with business and political connections in Diyarbakır.

The common target of investigations

The Ankara Chief Prosecutor’s investigation into the CHP Congress has İmamoğlu as its covert target. The charge of “vote-buying” refers to allegations that İmamoğlu’s supporters offered material incentives to delegates to elect Özgür Özel instead of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

While the investigation began in January 2024 following a complaint that the CHP Bursa Provincial Chairman had been bribed to vote against Kılıçdaroğlu, it only became public 13 months later in February 2025 – specifically on February 10th, just as CHP leadership was set to determine its presidential strategy.

The night before, during a meeting between Özel, İmamoğlu, and Ankara Metropolitan Mayor Mansur Yavaş, it had become clear that Yavaş would not enter the presidential primary, leaving İmamoğlu as the sole candidate. This timing is hardly coincidental.

The investigations serve two purposes: to paralyze the CHP leadership – which for the first time in 22 years overtook the AKP in the 2024 elections – with constant defensive battles, and to directly target İmamoğlu.

The simple art of destabilizing CHP

A crucial point needs to be made: This analysis isn’t suggesting that crimes – whether corruption or terrorism – should go uninvestigated. Rather, it highlights how these investigations are being weaponized for political purposes.

From Erdoğan and the AKP’s perspective, internal destabilization of CHP has never been easier, aided by this series of investigations.

This vulnerability stems largely from CHP’s leadership change at the November 4-5, 2023 Congress following the 2023 election defeat, where Kılıçdaroğlu was ousted and Özel elected.

The Kılıçdaroğlu faction never accepted this outcome, while Özel’s camp exacerbated internal divisions by attempting to purge opponents from party leadership. Internal opposition groups seem more focused on toppling Özel and İmamoğlu, whom they blame for orchestrating the leadership change, than on achieving political power.

For Erdoğan and the AKP, exploiting these revenge-fueled internal divisions has become almost effortless.

Merely pressing a few pressure points is enough to trigger internal conflicts.

CHP’s period of turmoil

If Özel hopes to cure CHP of its chronic “small but mine” mentality and rebuild the party with a genuine focus on gaining power, he must urgently embrace a more inclusive approach. Furthermore, current CHP leadership is falling into Kılıçdaroğlu’s old trap of placing excessive faith in polls showing CHP far ahead.

They’re failing to recognize that many CHP votes come not from enthusiasm for party policies but from opposition to President Erdoğan’s governance – a dynamic that could shift at any time.

At this rate, CHP risks making political history by losing elections twice despite presiding over the country’s longest-running economic crisis.