Kılıçdaroğlu urges lifting lawmakers' immunity in fund case; Özel says the target is YENİ Parti

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of Turkey's Republican People's Party (CHP), called on Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026, for parliament to lift the immunity of "fraudster politicians" linked to the investment fund scandal. Hours earlier, Özgür Özel, who led the CHP until a court ruling in May and now heads the breakaway YENİ Parti, told his own lawmakers that the pledge was aimed at them. At least 62 requests to lift Özel's own immunity are waiting in parliament, according to DW Türkçe.

The exchange came at the two parties' weekly group meetings in parliament. It sharpened a dispute over who should be exposed to prosecution in a case that has already led to dozens of arrests. It also came five days before YENİ Parti asks its members to choose a leader in a nationwide vote on Sunday, Nov. 8.

Coverage of the other parts of Tuesday's speeches, including the parties' competing lists of fund beneficiaries and calls for an early election, is in our report on the day's detentions and group meetings. This story focuses on immunity and on YENİ Parti's leadership vote. Quotations are 567politics translations from Turkish.

What Kılıçdaroğlu said

Kılıçdaroğlu argued that a fraud of this size could not have happened without politicians. "The politician is inside this business, and the immunities of these politicians, of fraudster politicians, must be lifted quickly," he said, according to the text of the speech published by the CHP. "Those who commit theft and corruption should not be under the roof of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey."

He did not name any lawmaker. He called for the names of everyone involved in the fund case to be published "regardless of their identity, their party or where they are." He said they should be tried for organized crime rather than as ordinary criminal cases. He asked the leaders of all parties to join him in passing what he called a "Political Ethics Law."

"If the people are being robbed, if politicians and bureaucrats are working hand in hand to rob citizens in state institutions, the time has come to say stop," he said. He repeated an earlier message to his own party's mayors: any mayor who has been involved in corruption should not use the CHP logo and should resign.

Cumhuriyet and other outlets led their coverage of the speech with the immunity remark.

How Özel answered

Özel spoke at YENİ Parti's group meeting in the morning. He described Kılıçdaroğlu, whom he called one of the "nullity supporters," as someone delivering on promises made in return for the leadership. The term refers to a court's ruling of "absolute nullity" on May 21, which returned Kılıçdaroğlu to the CHP leadership, as BBC Türkçe reported.

"The nullity supporters now say, 'I am ready to change the Constitution,'" Özel said, according to T24's account of the speech. He went on to describe Kılıçdaroğlu's position in his own words. "'I will lift immunities. I will even change the Constitution for it.' Just as he caused Selahattin Başkan to go inside through a constitutional amendment, he says he will do it for YENİ Parti cadres if necessary," Özel said, referring to Selahattin Demirtaş, the former co-chair of the pro-Kurdish HDP.

The speech text published by the CHP does not mention YENİ Parti. The link between the two is Özel's reading. Özel also said Kılıçdaroğlu was ready to back a Saudi defense pact that, Özel said, the whole opposition rejects. He said Kılıçdaroğlu would also vote for an early presidential election that would let President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan run again. The defense pact is covered in our report on the parliamentary vote.

According to BBC Türkçe, Kılıçdaroğlu said last month that he did not oppose a constitutional change proposed by the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP), but that an ethics law should come first. He also said his party would not object if an early election were proposed.

The files against Özel

Under Article 83 of the Turkish Constitution, a lawmaker accused of a crime "cannot be detained, questioned, arrested or tried" without a decision of parliament. The main exceptions are cases caught in the act that carry heavy penalties. Prosecutors who want to investigate a lawmaker send a file, known as a fezleke, to the speaker of parliament. It then goes to a joint committee of the constitution and justice committees before any vote in the full chamber.

DW Türkçe's court reporter Alican Uludağ wrote on Nov. 2 that at least 62 such files on Özel had been sent to parliament and were waiting in the joint committee. The most recent, he wrote, were based on statements by the jailed mayors of Antalya and Uşak, Muhittin Böcek and Özkan Yalım. Böcek's statement concerns alleged payments linked to his renomination for the 2024 local elections. Yalım's concerns the CHP's 38th congress. Neither claim has been tested in court.

A new strand comes from a money laundering investigation into the family of Mustafa Sarıgül, a lawmaker who left YENİ Parti after the investigation began. Fifteen people, including his former wife, his son Ömer Sarıgül and the journalist Murat Ağırel, were arrested on Oct. 19, according to BBC Türkçe. Another son, Emir Sarıgül, told prosecutors that his father had given Özel money and a scarf. Mustafa Sarıgül denies the allegations against his family.

These are allegations in a witness statement. No court has examined them, and no charge has been brought against Özel. "Ask whether Vakko sells scarves in August," Özel said on Tuesday, referring to the luxury store at the center of the claim. His party's spokesman, Zeynel Emre, called the claims "an outright lie, an open slander" and said the party's spending was on record and that it would take legal action.

DW reported that, because both men hold immunity, prosecutors cannot gather evidence such as phone location records to check whether they met. It said the Istanbul prosecutor's office would send the file to Ankara, which handles cases involving lawmakers and would prepare a request to lift their immunity. Prosecution sources told Cumhuriyet that reports of a new investigation into Özel were "not true for now."

YENİ Parti officials told the Anka news agency that the allegations had been amplified in the media to overshadow the fund scandal. "Slander someone, and a file is prepared about them right away," they said.

The 2016 precedent

The dispute draws on a vote that still divides the opposition. In 2016, when Kılıçdaroğlu led the CHP, the party voted for a constitutional change that lifted lawmakers' immunity. BBC Türkçe noted that the vote began the process that led to the arrest of Demirtaş, then co-chair of the pro-Kurdish HDP.

The DEM Party, the HDP's successor, has rejected new moves to lift immunity. In June, after Kılıçdaroğlu said he did not regret the 2016 vote, DEM co-chair Tülay Hatimoğulları said her party had expected an apology. "The logic that lifted the immunities of HDP lawmakers and put our friends in prison is the same as the logic that is trying to design politics today with the absolute nullity ruling," she said, according to Yeni Journal. "How can you ask for immunities to be lifted when you know the government uses the judiciary as a stick?"

The DEM Party is also a central actor in the peace process involving the government and the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party, as covered in our report on the latest stage of those talks. The opposition's wider complaints about prosecutions of its politicians are covered in our report on Ekrem İmamoğlu's case at the European Court of Human Rights.

The government side

The AKP has said that no one in the fund case will be protected. In the general assembly on Tuesday, AKP group deputy chair Leyla Şahin Usta said everyone involved would answer for it. "Whoever is involved in the crime is being held to account and will be held to account," she said, according to a Haberler.com report. "Whether in the bureaucracy or the political side, all of them will answer." She said fund losses would not be covered with public money and called for the lists to be published as well.

Usta turned the argument back on the opposition. She called on parties that run municipalities to stop defending officials accused of bribery and corruption. Another AKP group deputy chair, Abdulhamit Gül, told parliament on Oct. 20 that "no title is ever a reason for immunity," according to an eGündem report. He said 403 suspects had been processed at that point, 87 of them jailed. Prosecutors have since sought the detention of the former stock exchange chief, as covered in our earlier report.

567politics found no report of any vote on lifting a lawmaker's immunity in connection with the fund case.

YENİ Parti's leadership vote

The immunity dispute overlaps with YENİ Parti's first test of its own rules. "This Sunday we are choosing the leader of YENİ Parti with 800,000 members in more than 900 districts in 81 provinces," Özel said. "Everyone who joins YENİ Parti by Nov. 5 can come to the ballot box on Nov. 8 and decide the party's leader."

Party officials told Anka that about 3,000 ballot boxes would be set up nationwide, twice as many as for the party's earlier primaries for provincial chairs. The vote comes ahead of the party's first ordinary congress, themed "founding," at Ankara Arena on Nov. 14–15. Officials said the party would give a transparent account at the congress of how it had spent its donations. The founders' board is to meet on Nov. 9.

1. 2016CHP votes for the amendment lifting lawmakers' immunity
2. May 21, 2026Court's "absolute nullity" ruling returns Kılıçdaroğlu to the CHP leadership
3. June 22, 2026DEM's Hatimoğulları says her party expected an apology for 2016
4. Oct. 19, 2026Fifteen people arrested in the Sarıgül family investigation
5. Oct. 20, 2026AKP's Gül says no title gives immunity in the fund case
6. Nov. 2, 2026DW reports at least 62 files on Özel waiting in parliament
7. Nov. 3, 2026Kılıçdaroğlu calls for lifting immunity; Özel responds
8. Nov. 5, 2026Deadline to join YENİ Parti and vote
9. Nov. 8, 2026YENİ Parti all-member leadership vote
10. Nov. 14–15, 2026YENİ Parti's first ordinary congress in Ankara

Source: BBC Türkçe, DW Türkçe, Anka, Yeni Journal, eGündem

The format is the one Özel says he sought inside the CHP. He told the meeting that, before founding the new party, he had offered to put the CHP leadership to a vote of all members and to quit politics if he won less than 90%. He said the old party had 2 million members, but that the other side had insisted the law allowed leadership votes only through delegates. "They ran from 2 million members," he said.

The party has not said what share of the vote, or what turnout, it would treat as a mandate.

What remains unknown

• Who is meant. Kılıçdaroğlu named no lawmaker in his call. It is not clear whether he would support lifting immunity in the files against Özel, which concern other cases.
• A political ethics law. No draft of the law Kılıçdaroğlu proposed has been published.
• The new file. Prosecution sources say no new investigation into Özel has been opened for now. Any request to lift his immunity on the Sarıgül claims would go to the joint committee first.
• Turnout on Nov. 8. YENİ Parti says 800,000 members are eligible. The final number will depend on sign-ups by Nov. 5.

Differing perspectives

Should parliament lift lawmakers' immunity as part of Turkey's investment fund investigation?

Each position is summarized as its supporters make it, with equal weight and in alphabetical order. A summary is not an endorsement; the evidence for each is weighed in the story above.

• Hold everyone to account through the courts

  Who holds it: AKP group deputy chair Leyla Şahin Usta

  The AKP says everyone involved in the fund case is being and will be held to account, whether in the bureaucracy or in politics, and that no one will be spared. It says fund losses will not be covered with public money, that the lists should be published, and that opposition parties should stop defending officials in their own municipalities who are accused of bribery and corruption.

  In their words: Haberler.com, report on Usta's Nov. 3 statement in parliament ↗

• Lift the immunity of politicians tied to the fraud

  Who holds it: CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu

  Kılıçdaroğlu says a fraud of this size could not have happened without politicians, so the immunity of those involved should be lifted quickly and people accused of theft and corruption should not sit in parliament. He wants the names of everyone involved published regardless of party, trials for organized crime, and a Political Ethics Law passed with the support of all parties.

  In their words: Republican People's Party (CHP), text of the Nov. 3 group speech ↗

• Oppose lifting immunities, citing the 2016 precedent

  Who holds it: DEM Party co-chair Tülay Hatimoğulları

  The DEM Party says the 2016 vote that lifted immunities led to the imprisonment of Selahattin Demirtaş, Figen Yüksekdağ and other HDP officials, and that it expected an apology. It argues that the same logic is now being used to design politics through the absolute nullity ruling, and asks how anyone can seek to lift immunities while knowing the government uses the judiciary as a stick.

  In their words: Yeni Journal, report on Hatimoğulları's June 2026 statement ↗

• Treat the pledge as a move against YENİ Parti

  Who holds it: YENİ Parti leader Özgür Özel

  Özel says Kılıçdaroğlu, returned to the CHP leadership by a court ruling, is now delivering on promises: changing the Constitution, lifting immunities and, if necessary, doing to YENİ Parti's lawmakers what the 2016 amendment did to Selahattin Demirtaş. He presents his party's all-member leadership vote on Nov. 8 as the answer, contrasting it with the delegate system used in the CHP.

  In their words: T24, account of Özel's Nov. 3 group speech ↗