{"version":"1.9","identifier":"bf95a7e2-07c6-4a10-b536-e0e4c81363ac","language":"en-US","title":"Kılıçdaroğlu urges lifting lawmakers' immunity in fund case; Özel says the target is YENİ Parti","layout":{"columns":7,"width":1024,"margin":32,"gutter":20},"componentLayouts":{"text":{"columnStart":0,"columnSpan":7,"maximumContentWidth":720,"margin":{"top":12,"bottom":12}},"photo":{"columnStart":0,"columnSpan":7,"margin":{"top":20,"bottom":20}}},"componentTextStyles":{"default":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":18,"lineHeight":29,"textColor":"#171717"},"headline":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue-Bold","fontSize":36,"lineHeight":42,"conditional":[{"conditions":{"maxViewportWidth":480},"fontSize":28,"lineHeight":34}]},"intro":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":20,"lineHeight":28,"textColor":"#555555"},"caption":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":13,"lineHeight":19,"textColor":"#666666"},"byline":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":13,"lineHeight":20,"textColor":"#666666"},"body":{"fontName":"HelveticaNeue","fontSize":18,"lineHeight":29,"paragraphSpacingAfter":14,"linkStyle":{"textColor":"#00704a"}}},"metadata":{"canonicalURL":"https://567politics.com/news/turkey-immunity-kilicdaroglu-ozel-yeni-parti-fezleke-leadership-vote-november-2026","datePublished":"2026-11-03T23:15:19.877749Z","dateModified":"2026-11-03T23:16:28.444704Z","authors":["Patrick Karsh"],"excerpt":"The CHP leader called for a political ethics law. Özel, facing at least 62 immunity files, holds an all-member leadership vote on Nov. 8.","thumbnailURL":"https://pub-fac99da959e344fe99d810d309cef7df.r2.dev/photos/article/bf95a7e2-07c6-4a10-b536-e0e4c81363ac/b0b8044b0c7933f557536d72f2f2ddcc.jpg","keywords":["tr"],"generatorName":"Frog News","generatorVersion":"1.0"},"components":[{"role":"title","text":"Kılıçdaroğlu urges lifting lawmakers' immunity in fund case; Özel says the target is YENİ Parti","textStyle":"headline","layout":"text"},{"role":"intro","text":"The CHP leader called for a political ethics law. Özel, facing at least 62 immunity files, holds an all-member leadership vote on Nov. 8.","textStyle":"intro","layout":"text"},{"role":"byline","text":"By Patrick Karsh · Published November 3, 2026","textStyle":"byline","layout":"text"},{"role":"photo","URL":"https://pub-fac99da959e344fe99d810d309cef7df.r2.dev/photos/article/bf95a7e2-07c6-4a10-b536-e0e4c81363ac/b0b8044b0c7933f557536d72f2f2ddcc.jpg","caption":"Özgür Özel at a rally in İzmir on May 26, 2026, after the court's \"absolute nullity\" ruling. Photo: Koray, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Wikimedia Commons (Koray, CC BY-SA 4.0)","accessibilityCaption":"Özgür Özel at a rally in İzmir on May 26, 2026, after the court's \"absolute nullity\" ruling. Photo: Koray, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.","layout":"photo"},{"role":"caption","text":"Özgür Özel at a rally in İzmir on May 26, 2026, after the court's \"absolute nullity\" ruling. Photo: Koray, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. · Wikimedia Commons (Koray, CC BY-SA 4.0)","textStyle":"caption","layout":"text"},{"role":"body","format":"markdown","text":"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.\n\nThe 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.\n\nCoverage 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](https://567politics.com/news/turkey-fund-probe-ergun-jailed-gurlek-433-suspects-opposition-group-speeches-november-2026). This story focuses on immunity and on YENİ Parti's leadership vote. Quotations are 567politics translations from Turkish.\n\n## What Kılıçdaroğlu said\n\nKılıçdaroğlu 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](https://chp.org.tr/haberler/chp-genel-baskani-kemal-kilicdaroglu-bu-butce-ureticiye-degil-tefecilere-hizmet-ediyor). \"Those who commit theft and corruption should not be under the roof of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey.\"\n\nHe 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.\"\n\n\"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.\n\n[Cumhuriyet](https://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/siyaset/kilicdaroglu-ndan-dikkat-ceken-dokunulmazlik-aciklamasi-dolandirici-siyasetcilerin-dokunulmazliginin-kaldirilmasi-lazim-2552843) and other outlets led their coverage of the speech with the immunity remark.\n\n## How Özel answered\n\nÖzel 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](https://www.bbc.com/turkce/articles/cqglwjdx3043o) reported.\n\n\"The nullity supporters now say, 'I am ready to change the Constitution,'\" Özel said, according to [T24's account of the speech](https://t24.com.tr/politika/yeni-parti-lideri-ozgur-ozel-partisinin-grup-toplantisinda,1356796). 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.\n\nThe 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](https://567politics.com/news/turkey-parliament-mecca-defense-pact-vote-saudi-pakistan-party-positions-november-2026).\n\nAccording 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.\n\n## The files against Özel\n\nUnder Article 83 of the [Turkish Constitution](https://www.mevzuat.gov.tr/MevzuatMetin/1.5.2709.pdf), 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.\n\nDW Türkçe's court reporter Alican Uludağ [wrote on Nov. 2](https://www.dw.com/tr/emir-sar%C4%B1g%C3%BCl%C3%BCn-iddialar%C4%B1-%C3%B6zg%C3%BCr-%C3%B6zel-hakk%C4%B1nda-yeni-dosya-haz%C4%B1rl%C4%B1%C4%9F%C4%B1/a-79827363) 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.\n\nA 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.\n\nThese 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.\n\nDW 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](https://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/siyaset/emir-sarigul-un-ifadesi-sonrasi-ozgur-ozel-hakkinda-yeni-sorusturma-iddiasi-savcilik-kaynaklarindan-yanit-geldi-2552500) that reports of a new investigation into Özel were \"not true for now.\"\n\nYENİ Parti officials told the [Anka news agency](https://ankahaber.net/haber/yeni-parti-nin-kurulus-kurultayi-hazirliklari-hizlandi-genel-baskanlik-on-secimi-icin-3-bin-sandik-kurulacak-908e58d3) 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.\n\n## The 2016 precedent\n\nThe 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.\n\nThe 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](https://www.yenijournal.com/hatimogullarindan-kilicdarogluna-dokunulmazlik-tepkisi-ozur-dilemesini-beklerdik). \"How can you ask for immunities to be lifted when you know the government uses the judiciary as a stick?\"\n\nThe 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](https://567politics.com/news/turkey-ocalan-imrali-new-quarters-dem-peace-process-stalled-november-2026). 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](https://567politics.com/news/turkey-imamoglu-echr-brief-hrw-icj-tlsp-ibb-trial-witnesses-november-2026).\n\n## The government side\n\nThe 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](https://www.haberler.com/politika/ak-parti-grup-baskanvekili-usta-fon-vurgununda-20392966-haberi/). \"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.\n\nUsta 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](https://egundem.com/gundem/ak-parti-grup-baskanvekili-gulden-fon-sorusturmasi-aciklamasi-hicbir-unvan-dokunulmazlik-vesilesi-degildir-3c2264cf). 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](https://567politics.com/news/turkey-fund-probe-borsa-istanbul-ergun-arrest-request-takasbank-spk-november-2026).\n\n567politics found no report of any vote on lifting a lawmaker's immunity in connection with the fund case.\n\n## YENİ Parti's leadership vote\n\nThe 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.\"\n\nParty 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.\n\n**Immunity dispute and YENİ Parti's leadership vote**\n\n* **2016**: CHP votes for the amendment lifting lawmakers' immunity\n* **May 21, 2026**: Court's \"absolute nullity\" ruling returns Kılıçdaroğlu to the CHP leadership\n* **June 22, 2026**: DEM's Hatimoğulları says her party expected an apology for 2016\n* **Oct. 19, 2026**: Fifteen people arrested in the Sarıgül family investigation\n* **Oct. 20, 2026**: AKP's Gül says no title gives immunity in the fund case\n* **Nov. 2, 2026**: DW reports at least 62 files on Özel waiting in parliament\n* **Nov. 3, 2026**: Kılıçdaroğlu calls for lifting immunity; Özel responds\n* **Nov. 5, 2026**: Deadline to join YENİ Parti and vote\n* **Nov. 8, 2026**: YENİ Parti all-member leadership vote\n* **Nov. 14–15, 2026**: YENİ Parti's first ordinary congress in Ankara\n\nSource: [BBC Türkçe](https://www.bbc.com/turkce/articles/cqglwjdx3043o), [DW Türkçe](https://www.dw.com/tr/emir-sar%C4%B1g%C3%BCl%C3%BCn-iddialar%C4%B1-%C3%B6zg%C3%BCr-%C3%B6zel-hakk%C4%B1nda-yeni-dosya-haz%C4%B1rl%C4%B1%C4%9F%C4%B1/a-79827363), [Anka](https://ankahaber.net/haber/yeni-parti-nin-kurulus-kurultayi-hazirliklari-hizlandi-genel-baskanlik-on-secimi-icin-3-bin-sandik-kurulacak-908e58d3), [Yeni Journal](https://www.yenijournal.com/hatimogullarindan-kilicdarogluna-dokunulmazlik-tepkisi-ozur-dilemesini-beklerdik), [eGündem](https://egundem.com/gundem/ak-parti-grup-baskanvekili-gulden-fon-sorusturmasi-aciklamasi-hicbir-unvan-dokunulmazlik-vesilesi-degildir-3c2264cf)\n\nThe 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.\n\nThe party has not said what share of the vote, or what turnout, it would treat as a mandate.\n\n## What remains unknown\n\n* **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.\n* **A political ethics law.** No draft of the law Kılıçdaroğlu proposed has been published.\n* **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.\n* **Turnout on Nov. 8.** YENİ Parti says 800,000 members are eligible. The final number will depend on sign-ups by Nov. 5.","textStyle":"body","layout":"text"}]}