Yılmaz Ateş, who served as deputy chair of main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) said the party which expelled him in 2019, was occupied by Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ). Ateş was one of the figures close to late Chair Deniz Baykal, who stepped down in 2010 after a sex tape of an extramarital affair surfaced. The scandal was the work of police officers linked to FETÖ, as subsequent investigation revealed years later.

Ateş told Tuba Kalçık of the Sabah newspaper in remarks published on Monday that FETÖ’s conspiracy was a turning point for CHP, which took a turn for the worse. "After Baykal left, the patriotic cadres of the party were expelled and those who remained were neutralized. Those who took over the party in 2010 trampled upon the values of CHP,” he said.

Baykal was succeeded by Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who served 13 years as the party’s chair, before a disastrous election defeat in 2023 prompted an intraparty election. Kılıçdaroğlu was succeeded by incumbent Özgür Özel, who now faces a trial over allegations of vote-buying during the intraparty election to defeat Kılıçdaroğlu.

Ateş said he was aware of mounting threats against Baykal, noting that FETÖ was very influential back then. FETÖ, which posed as a charity movement with religious undertones, managed to infiltrate into state institutions over decades. In 2013, it openly declared war on the government by plotting two attempts to topple it under the guise of a graft probe launched by its infiltrators in the law enforcement and judiciary. In 2016, FETÖ used its infiltrators in the army and attempted to overthrow the government once again, only to fail due to a strong public resistance under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Ateş told Sabah that at one point, he was worried that Baykal could share the fate of Muhsin Yazıcıoğlu, the late leader of the Greater Unity Party (BBP), who died in a helicopter crash in 2009, an accident largely viewed as a conspiracy by FETÖ to kill the nationalist politician. A trial is still underway over the alleged role of military officers and others in thwarting the rescue of Yazıcıoğlu after his helicopter crashed in a mountainous area in southern Türkiye. "I was worried that CHP’s plane would also be sabotaged,” he said.

He stated that CHP had a history of over a century and led the establishment of modern Türkiye. "It defended the democratic republic and this is why it faced harsh attacks,” he said. He portrayed the post-Baykal era in the party as a time of "return of those expelled from the party earlier for corruption.” "Some assigned to the party’s assembly, some people recruited as advisers turned out to have ties with FETÖ. This is unacceptable,” he said.