What does the regime expect from the indictment?
With the İBB indictment the regime’s roadmap has become clear. Although the Prosecutor’s Office denied reports of a closure case against CHP the judicial stick will hang over the party like the sword of Damocles. The opposition, which is intended to be isolated and fragmented, will have to channel all its energy into defence.
The İBB indictment has also expressed the path the regime will follow. Although the Prosecutor’s Office denied the possibility of an immediate “closure case against CHP”, the threat has begun to hang over the party like the sword of Damocles to push it onto a controlled opposition line.
Meanwhile the 3,900-page indictment, which includes hundreds of names, will seek to keep the opposition constantly on the defensive.
The case, expected to last for years, will become increasingly complex as in the Ergenekon processes, in an attempt to dampen social reactions. Ultimately the government will try to cross the critical threshold for a Turkey without elections and without opposition.
If we summarise what the government aims to achieve with the İBB indictment:
• THE SWORD OF DAMOCLES
Immediately after the submission of the İBB indictment the media carried reports that a “closure case against CHP” would be opened. The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office denied the claims, saying “Only the legal notification was made, there is no request for closure”. In any case the Prosecutor’s Office cannot legally make such a request to the Court of Cassation. Although the Prosecutor’s Office has not demanded CHP’s closure, lawyers say “The Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office at the Court of Cassation will make its own assessment in light of the information received and form an opinion on whether to apply to the Constitutional Court for closure or not”. The most critical point is that, as in the previous congress case, the judicial stick will again be kept ready over CHP. Many leading figures of Erdoğan and the government had already warned Chair Özgür Özel to “do politics in Ankara”. This warning can also be read as a message to act as controlled opposition within the boundaries drawn by the regime: “don’t push too far. Save your words for the weekly group meetings, drop rallies, withdraw from the streets, forget İmamoğlu”. The closure case will therefore hang over CHP at all times like the sword of Damocles.
• FORCING THE RIVAL INTO DEFENCE
The AKP–MHP government tried to neutralise the main opposition party with the 19 March operations. The İBB operations and congress cases, as well as diploma and insult cases and immunity files submitted to Parliament, became moves to keep CHP constantly in a defensive position. The aim is to make CHP expend all its energy on trustee debates and endless cases and trials. Instead of dealing with the country’s most pressing issues such as the economic crisis and deepening poverty, CHP is being pushed to direct all its strength at the İBB indictment and cases.
• EFFORT TO ISOLATE CHP
Regarding the entire opposition block the issue of the solution process needs a separate bracket. Politics has long been shaped along the line of those who support or oppose the solution process. Politicians kept in jail for years unjustly are evaluated according to whether they serve the government’s interests in the process. While an atmosphere of democracy, peace and fraternity is created in one part of the country, CHP is placed in the category of arch enemy in another, with heavy sentences demanded for its mayors. All actors in the opposition block need to be reminded that democracy will not come with a false spring.
• AIM TO DAMPEN REACTION
In the 3,900-page indictment consisting of seven sections CHP’s presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu is accused of 143 acts and a prison sentence of between 828 and 2,430 years is requested. A total of 402 names appear as “suspects”, while many points that İBB has refuted through its “lies and facts” posts also appear in the indictment. Public opinion largely expects the case to stretch over many years. The indictment in this form recalls the long-running Ergenekon cases. A move is being aimed at spreading the process out so that truth and slander become interwoven over time, clouding social memory and gradually dampening reactions.
• MOVE TO CONSOLIDATE THE REGIME
The 19 March operations were an attempt to push İBB President İmamoğlu, who received more than 15 million votes in CHP’s primary election, out of the race by bringing diploma and insult cases into play. This critical step was also one of the turning points in building a Turkey “without elections and without opposition”. This rupture points to a regime in which the ballot box becomes mere formality, the President chooses his own rival, election security disappears entirely, opposition parties and leaders are punished, local administrations’ powers are eroded and social opposition is silenced.
Only the joint and united struggle of the millions across the country who have opposed the regime since March can break this entire game plan.
THE MHP NEWSPAPER DOWNPLAYED IT
Türkgün, known for its closeness to MHP, the partner of the People’s Alliance, was the newspaper that covered the İBB indictment the least, apart from sports papers. The paper almost concealed the indictment report. It preferred to carry the indictment story as the second headline on an inside page. After Bahçeli did not attend the Republic reception on 29 October claims of rifts within the People’s Alliance had emerged. These claims were denied by both MHP and AKP. Bahçeli had also supported the request for İBB cases to be broadcast on TRT.
Note: This article is translated from the original article titled Rejim iddianameden ne umuyor?, published in BirGün newspaper on November 13, 2025.
