Their only ‘cause’ is to protect the regime
With public support eroding, the web of dirty relations created by the government from mafia leaders to bureaucrats, pro-government lawyers to politicians, has been laid bare. The sole aim of the government is to preserve the regime that benefits its loyalists.
Politics Service
As the AKP-MHP alliance seeks to prolong its rule and even build a new regime, it has put all its cards on the table. On one hand, it continues endless judicial operations against opposition municipalities. On the other, it tries to consolidate politics through settlement debates, while its network of corrupt relations is being exposed.
The order created by the AKP-MHP government has rotted from the judiciary to the bureaucracy. A system has been revealed where no one knows whose hand is in whose pocket, where mafia bosses, bribed lawyers, politicians, and bureaucrats are all entangled in struggles over rent and spoils, and where their photos together have surfaced.
In the midst of this turmoil, the government’s only aim is to protect the crumbling regime, in which its political partnership and all those profiting from the system are bound together in a kind of fate-sharing. Despite appearances of conflict, President Erdoğan and MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli are mutually dependent like Siamese twins.
The scale of this dirty alliance can be understood just from the scandals of recent days.
BAHÇELİ’S SUPPORT
Selahattin Yılmaz, known for visiting Bahçeli with mafia boss Alaattin Çakıcı, was arrested two days ago with 10 others in a criminal organisation probe. On 17 August, Sabah newspaper ran a headline, “Kill the Informant (Aziz İhsan) Aktaş,” claiming that Fatih Keleş had contacted a criminal group through his lawyer to order Aktaş’s killing. The paper said the order was relayed via lawyer Cem Duman to gang leader Selahattin Yılmaz.
İBB Sports Club President Fatih Keleş said on X that he had only heard Yılmaz’s name in the press and did not know him. He dismissed Sabah’s “İBB gang’s contract killing plan” story as the latest episode in a systematic smear campaign.
Defending Yılmaz, Bahçeli declared: “Selahattin Yılmaz is my comrade and fellow cause-fighter. No nationalist can be called a contract killer, assassin, traitor, or illegitimate. To claim that MHP is being manipulated through Selahattin Yılmaz’s name is a grave slander, baseless and unfounded. No one can dictate or direct MHP. I repeat: Selahattin Yılmaz is my comrade and fellow cause-fighter. I believe it will be understood in due course that he is innocent.”
PHOTOS EMERGE
The İstanbul-centred operation across five provinces led to the arrest of 10 suspects, including alleged gang leader Selahattin Yılmaz and lawyer Cem Duman, notorious for sharing photos from his gold-decorated office. Pictures of Duman with pro-government columnist Ahmet Hakan had already surfaced.
THE IBB ‘STOCK EXCHANGE’
It was revealed that lawyer Mücahit Birinci, a former AKP Central Decision and Executive Board member, had demanded $2 million for the release of Murat Kapki, jailed in the IBB case. CHP leader Özgür Özel dubbed this scandal the “İBB Stock Exchange.” Birinci was referred to discipline for expulsion, after which he resigned from the party. When journalist Nedim Şener’s name also came up, the two traded insults on social media.
Keleş also revealed that, like Kapki, he had repeatedly been offered “remorse deals.” He said he was asked for “a large payment,” with the promise that if he paid, “if not himself, then his son, nephew, and brother could be released from prison.”
THE BURSA ‘STOCK EXCHANGE’
Journalist İsmail Saymaz claimed a similar case in Bursa. In a probe into a CHP district municipality, a tapped phone call revealed Halil T. offering, “Give $100,000 and we’ll remove you from the file.” The victim complained to the Bursa Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office. It was determined that Halil T. was working with a court clerk, and both were arrested.
In the same “assassination plot” case, lawyer Semra Ilık was also arrested. Bahadır Özgür of Halk TV profiled Ilık, noting her companies operating in sectors from defence to helicopter taxis. With close ties to AKP figures, her photo with pro-government commentator Cem Küçük also surfaced.
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Tek ‘davaları’ rejimi korumak, published in BirGün newspaper on August 20, 2025.
