Authorities have ordered an access ban on the X accounts of the left-wing TİP headquarters and its Istanbul branch, the party said on Oct. 14, following thousands of similar bans on the accounts of academics, journalists, websites and associations.
The headquarters account alone had about 582,000 followers. TİP is the first party represented in parliament to have its X account blocked.
The party said it learned of the rulings on social media and that they had not yet been enforced. It said it faced pressure and censorship after publishing allegations related to the fund investigation. “Upon review, it is understood that we have been subjected to this pressure and censorship for our statements and publications exposing the fund scandal,” the party said.
TİP leader Erkan Baş called the ban “an open act of fascism.” Blocking a party’s headquarters account was not merely a social media blockade but a de facto attack on democratic politics, he said.
Baş said the party would keep repeating the banned statements on the streets and from the parliamentary rostrum. “We promise the days when everyone who signed these decisions will be put on trial,” he said.
ŞIK POINTS TO GÜRLEK VIDEO
TİP lawmaker Ahmet Şık said the decision came after the party posted a video about Justice Minister Akın Gürlek.
The video listed contradictions in the fund investigation and urged Gürlek to share the list. “Akın Gürlek, you cannot fairly try the fund profiteers who stole from the public. Resign!”
Şık has exposed the fund irregularities and their political connections through public statements and parliamentary questions. Gürlek has filed a criminal complaint against him.
Şık also said on X that Furkan Torlak, who worked under Gürlek, had been removed from his post. He accused Torlak of running a troll and media manipulation network under the fake identity “Mehmet Kap.” Şık called him Gürlek’s “little Goebbels.”
Torlak resigned on Dec. 13, 2025, as coordinator of the Presidential Communications Directorate’s Center for Combating Disinformation after his close relations with then Habertürk TV editor-in-chief Mehmet Akif Ersoy was divulged. Ersoy was jailed on charges of facilitating drug use and forming an organization to commit crimes. In February, Torlak joined Gürlek at the Justice Ministry after he took office.
TİP is not the first party to lose access to its X account. The accounts of the left wing SYKP, HKP, and SCP were blocked, as well as that of HKP Chair Nurullah Efe.
Hundreds of X accounts that posted about the investment fund crisis have faced similar bans since late September. They include Kısa Dalga, bianet and several journalists and economists.
