The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) is entangled in member corruption. Özkan Yalım, formerly the mayor of the western city of Uşak for the party, told investigators he paid a hefty sum to the party’s chair, Özgür Özel, secretly and bribed delegates to vote for Özel.
Yalım’s statements made public on Tuesday follow a similar testimony by Muhittin Böcek, the former mayor of Antalya, who acknowledged paying the party’s administration to secure candidacy in a past election.
Yalım was expelled from his party, almost two months after his arrest in Ankara on charges of corruption. Although the CHP rallied for other mayors accused of and detained for corruption, Yalım was singled out for disciplinary proceedings. The party administration has cited “ethical” reasons for his expulsion, in a veiled reference to the police raid where the mayor was caught semi-naked in a hotel room with his mistress.
The mayor spoke to investigators for about five hours at an Istanbul courthouse and admitted that he used the municipality’s vehicles for his private business and that municipal staff were employed for his private business. He also admitted that he paid TL 1.2 million ($26,000) to Özel before a November 2023 election, where Özel was elected to the top office of the party. He elaborated how he campaigned for Özel before the election and funded him, in one case, by leaving a bag full of cash outside Özel’s residence.
“He asked me to hand him as much cash as I could, and then, I handed Demirhan Gözaçan (an associate of Özel) another TL 1 million in (the western city of) Denizli,” Yalım said.
He said he also oversaw the recruitment of adult children of some delegates to gather votes for Özel. He claimed the delegates sent him CVs, and those people were recruited at CHP-run municipalities both before and after the November 2023 election.
On corruption in the Uşak municipality, Yalım said they created fictitious job positions at the municipality for the players of the sports club Uşakspor, as well as the spouses of some players. He confessed that he used donations to the municipality for his private expenses on several occasions, expressing regret and offering to pay them back.
Yalım further claimed that the cost of the conversion of a Mercedes vehicle used by Özel had been paid by the Uşak Municipality. He alleged that this payment had been concealed within the conversion invoice of another municipal vehicle. Yalım asserted that the payment, amounting to approximately 170,000 euros ($199,215), had been made from the municipality’s account, and argued that CHP officials were covering up the truth on the matter.
In his statement, Yalım also referred to his relationship with municipality employee Ebru Yurtuluğ, saying that the relationship had been influential in her being hired by the municipality. He stated that they had purchased a shared house with the intention of living together, and admitted that special woven carpets belonging to the municipality had been taken to this house without payment being made.
Regarding a municipal computer allegedly found at Yurtuluğ’s home, Yalım said he did not clearly remember the matter, but stated that he wanted to compensate for the damage incurred.
In his testimony, Yalım also recounted an incident that he said took place in a hotel in an eastern province during the work of the commission established by the CHP in 2018 against the privatization of sugar factories. Yalım stated that CHP lawmaker Veli Ağbaba had asked him for whisky, and that after obtaining it, he went to the room reserved for Veli Ağbaba together with Bursa Party Assembly member Gamze Pamuk Ateşli and Muğla Party Assembly member Gizem Özcan. He added that Veli Ağbaba later told him “good evening” and asked him to leave. Ağbaba’s name has also come up in another investigation regarding Böcek. Böcek’s son, Gökhan Böcek, confessed earlier that he was asked to deliver TL 30 million to Ağbaba by Özel, for approval of his father’s nomination in the 2024 municipal elections.
The main opposition CHP is under mounting scrutiny as a wave of corruption, bribery and terrorism-related investigations sweeps across its municipalities.
The most extensive probe targets the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, led by ousted Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, over claims of systematic corruption, fictitious tenders and abuse of public resources.
The CHP claims the charges are politically motivated. Speaking at an event on Tuesday, Özel claimed his party was “under attack” after Yalım invoked a law that offers lenient sentences for cooperating in an investigation. He said Yalım “cheated” them when the mayor told them that he would furnish Özel’s vehicle “out of his own pocket,” while he used the municipal funds instead. He did not respond to other allegations.
DAILYSABAH
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