The Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ) is known for its widespread attempts to infiltrate every institution and to subdue those who oppose those attempts. When the infiltration failed, it tried to steer institutions to its will through several schemes, as numerous investigations have indicated. The group also tried its hand in influencing politics, and one such attempt is now at the heart of a debate within the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP).

As the party descends into a chaotic conflict after the reinstatement of former Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu by a court verdict, accusations are hurled, people are branded "traitors” and the name of FETÖ inevitably looms large. It was Kılıçdaroğlu himself who apologized for allowing "FETÖ agents” into the party in his first address to supporters after taking over the CHP again in May. He also implied that FETÖ was still influential in the party, angering the ousted administration of Özgür Özel.

FETÖ’s overarching interest in the CHP goes back to at least 2010, the year a sex tape of the party’s then chair, Deniz Baykal, emerged. The tape, circulated online, originated from a FETÖ-linked website and eventually led to the resignation of Baykal. Kılıçdaroğlu took the helm at the party while investigations in the following years exposed that FETÖ’s infiltrators in law enforcement were behind the secretly recorded tape. A major reshuffle in the party after Baykal paved the way for figures linked to the terrorist group to join the CHP. In 2012, the year when FETÖ was still not designated as a terrorist group, Kılıçdaroğlu reached out to their so-called movement, with a meeting on Jan. 26 with Faruk Taban, an influential figure of the terrorist group in the U.S. who was serving as the chair of a Turkish American association.

The CHP also sided with FETÖ propaganda throughout a series of incidents that led to the designation of the group first as a "parallel state structure” and then as a terrorist organization. The terrorist group’s notorious Dec. 17-25 coup attempts in 2013 found a fierce defender in the Kılıçdaroğlu administration, which, just like the FETÖ propaganda machine, portrayed the so-called graft probe into people close to the government as the result of genuine corruption, despite the presence of forged evidence. The CHP continued to serve the interests of FETÖ in the case of National Intelligence Organization (MIT) trucks as well. Kılıçdaroğlu launched his famous "march of justice” in 2017 after Enis Berberoğlu, a journalist turned CHP lawmaker, was imprisoned for leaking photos regarding the case to the media. FETÖ, through its infiltrators in the military and judiciary, was also behind the MIT trucks case, seeking to damage Türkiye’s international image by associating it with the terrorist groups in neighboring Syria. During the July 15, 2016 coup attempt by FETÖ’s military infiltrators, Kılıçdaroğlu was criticized for inaction, conveniently skipping the resistance to the coup attempt by fellow CHP lawmakers at Parliament. Although he sought to redeem himself by joining the government officials and other opposition politicians in a pro-democracy rally days after the coup attempt, he later adhered to FETÖ’s rhetoric that the coup attempt was not perpetrated by the group. CHP’s narrative after the 2016 attempt focused on FETÖ’s propaganda, echoing their discourse of "controlled or staged coup,” blaming the government rather than the coup’s own perpetrators caught red-handed.

Kılıçdaroğlu, now branded as a traitor by supporters of his successor Özel, unified the party’s lawmakers in the past in defense of FETÖ. The most glaring example of this "defense” was CHP lawmakers confronting police who carried out a court order for the seizure of FETÖ’s mouthpiece Zaman newspaper in 2016. Mahmut Tanal, a CHP lawmaker who was among those visiting Zaman in support of FETÖ, now supports Özel and recently claimed that it was Kılıçdaroğlu who sent him to support the newspaper merely "to defend press freedom.”

The CHP also opposed intra-party opposition against perceived alliance with FETÖ. In 2014, Birgül Ayman Güler, a lawmaker, was expelled from the party when she spoke out against the alliance.

Following Kılıçdaroğlu’s public admission, Özel and former Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, a future presidential candidate of the party, launched a fierce counter-offensive, aggressively trying to prove that Kılıçdaroğlu himself was the primary FETÖ collaborator.

The internal power struggle has taken an even darker turn as fugitive FETÖ members, currently hiding in Europe and the United States, have actively inserted themselves into the CHP's internal debate. Among them was Emre Uslu, a U.S.-based FETÖ figure who was a member of the FETÖ community that took part in plots against the group’s foes in Türkiye. Uslu echoed the rhetoric of Özel and Imamoğlu (formerly a commentator at now-defunct Samanyolu, a broadcaster operated by FETÖ members) and, in a recently released video, claimed an alliance with the Kılıçdaroğlu-era CHP. He elaborated on his meetings and phone calls with Kılıçdaroğlu and even claimed that Kılıçdaroğlu "entrusted his son” to the group’s members while the latter was studying in South Korea.

Özel’s connection

Although Özgür Özel is defended by his supporters for having no links to FETÖ, his loyalty to the Kılıçdaroğlu administration until the 2023 intra-party elections makes him complicit in the party’s affairs with the terrorist group, including recruitment of an adviser for Kılıçdaroğlu who was later sentenced for FETÖ membership.

Mehmet Yıldırım, a lawyer, and Enis Uludemir, a businessperson in Manisa, the constituency of Özel in western Türkiye, have recently claimed that FETÖ engineered the rise of Özel in the party, in a bid to serve FETÖ’s interests.

The allegations indicate that the relationship is not a matter of passive alignment, but rather a coordinated, multi-year project. In a testimony to investigators in a separate case regarding FETÖ, Uludemir revealed that FETÖ mobilized financial and media sources to boost Özel’s image while he was a low-ranking figure in the party.

Uludemir said Özel was still a pharmacist in Manisa’s Salihli district when FETÖ began discussing supporting him in 2007.

"Since then, they have offered him financial support. He told investigators that FETÖ played a role in a secret public relations campaign for Özel, some four years before he was elected as a lawmaker for the party. Uncovered correspondence between FETÖ members Erkam Tufan Aytav and Salih Yaylacı, two influential names of the terrorist group, has also revealed FETÖ’s links to Özel. In one correspondence, Aytav and Yaylacı discussed giving notes for a campaign to Özel to accuse the government of negligence in a mining accident.

Uludemir has also said that FETÖ determined politicians it can employ among the opposition, and Özel was picked. He noted that when Özel was nominated for mayor of Manisa in 2010, FETÖ worked hard for his election. "(FETÖ) members went door to door for a campaign against (the ruling) AK Party back then, claiming AK Party executives illegally seized the land belonging to a state entity. But eventually, the MHP won the mayoral seat. This time, they campaigned to send Özel to Parliament. They helped him enrich his family. His daughter, out of the blue, was awarded by schools run by FETÖ,” Uludemir said.