Kılıçdaroğlu ‘Under Intelligence Control’ Claim Rocks Turkey

Former Turkish lawmaker Hüseyin Aygün has alleged that ex-CHP (Republican People's Party) chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu acted under the influence of Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization (MİT) and helped redesign the party through intelligence-led purges, in a detailed social media post reported by the daily Cumhuriyet.

In his lengthy social media post, Aygün claims that Kılıçdaroğlu moved in line with intelligence guidance and that the CHP was effectively “redesigned” on this basis. He argues that the roots of today’s internal crisis lie in the 2015 and 2018 election cycles, when, according to him, critical and left-leaning figures inside the party were systematically sidelined. Aygün frames these developments as part of a broader effort he describes as the “occupation” of the CHP and the erosion of the Republic’s founding values through the actions of an “old chairman” installed as a kind of political “trustee.”

Alleged Mi̇t Warning Over Syria Work

One of Aygün’s central examples concerns former CHP Hatay MP Refik Eryılmaz, known for documenting and denouncing atrocities committed by jihadist groups in Syria and for exposing their treatment inside Turkey, as well as engaging directly with Syrian authorities. Aygün says that Eryılmaz’s activism, including a trip to the United States to brief officials on the consequences of backing such groups, disturbed both the ruling AKP and MİT. He alleges that MİT “warned” Kılıçdaroğlu about Eryılmaz and that, instead of challenging the spying on his own deputy, Kılıçdaroğlu summoned Eryılmaz and told him “MİT is monitoring you, be careful with your moves,” which Aygün describes as effectively a threat from within the party leadership.

Claims Of “Blacklisted” Deputies

Aygün also recounts being told of a list of deputies whose “time in CHP should not continue in the next term,” which he says was drawn up on the basis of a “state” decision regarding who should be eliminated from parliament. Both he and Eryılmaz were allegedly placed near the top of this “MİT list,” and Aygün links his own pressured resignation attempt and subsequent disciplinary proceedings to this climate of intervention and internal targeting. He portrays these moves as part of a longer historical and ideological struggle, saying that the reasons for their exclusion go back “hundreds of years” of political conflict and four years of intensive parliamentary work on sensitive issues such as Syria, unsolved murders and the Dersim 1938 events.

Left Wing ‘Broken Off’ In 2018

According to Aygün, once “smaller morsels” like himself and Eryılmaz were removed or neutralized around 2015, Kılıçdaroğlu went on to “break off the party’s left wing” more decisively in the 2018 elections. He asserts that forces behind the opposition’s “Table of Six,” including İYİ Party leader Meral Akşener and unnamed “deep” actors, did not want “leftists” inside the CHP. Aygün cites a conversation with senior CHP figure Veli Ağbaba, who allegedly described the 2018 candidate reshuffle as the “purge of the CHP’s left wing,” reinforcing Aygün’s narrative that the party’s internal balance was deliberately shifted to the detriment of its socialist and dissident currents.

Aygün’s thread comes amid deep turmoil in the CHP after a court ruling on “absolute nullity” paved the way for Kılıçdaroğlu to regain the party chair following his defeat at a previous congress. The decision and subsequent police intervention at CHP headquarters, during which doors were reportedly broken and tear gas was used as officers entered the building, triggered public outrage and slogans such as “Traitor Kemal” at recent rallies, according to Cumhuriyet’s report. Aygün argues that the recent “occupation” of CHP and these unprecedented scenes are the culmination of a long-term process in which, he claims, Kılıçdaroğlu acted as a “state man” aligned with intelligence structures rather than defending his own deputies and the party’s autonomy.