Former AKP deputy Hüseyin Kocabıyık, who was expelled from the party, described the conflicts of interest within the AKP in an interview published on October 6 and harshly criticized President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. In the interview, Kocabıyık said that Erdoğan used to be a “gentlemanly, compassionate politician, a father to the poor,” but today he has become someone completely unrecognizable; he said that everyone in the party was involved in relationships of interest with the state, and that his wife had been appointed as a governor within this framework. The next day, Kocabıyık announced on his social media account that he had been taken into custody. The Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office detained Kocabıyık at his home in Ankara as part of an investigation launched on charges of “insulting the president” and arrested him on the same charges. President Erdoğan was listed as the complainant in the indictment prepared; his interview with Cumhuriyet newspaper and his X posts dated March 19, September 21, 25, and 27, and October 2 were presented as evidence. The prosecutor’s office argued that Kocabıyık had crossed the line of criticism and damaged Erdoğan’s honor and reputation by attributing unlawful acts to him, knowing that they had not been committed. Kocabıyık will appear before the judge at the Istanbul 46th Criminal Court of First Instance on December 16, 2025, on charges of “slander” and “insulting the President.”
November 18, 2025
Kısa Dalga
