Ahmet and Hülya Gökçek, the son and daughter-in-law of former Ankara Mayor Melih Gökçek, were questioned as suspects on Sept. 7 and released under judicial control with a ban on leaving Turkey.
Questioned for five hours, the couple told prosecutors the funds behind their German company came from selling jewelry given at their wedding and property inherited from Hülya Gökçek's family, Alican Uludağ from DW Turkish reported.
Hülya Gökçek, in a roughly seven-page statement, said she was orphaned at age 2.5, that her family was wealthy, and that she inherited numerous properties from her grandfather and father. She said those properties were sold and the proceeds deposited in the bank. She told prosecutors she could not yet produce the bank receipt for that deposit because the weekend fell between the summons and her testimony. The investigating prosecutor asked the couple to submit the receipt to the prosecutor's office.
Leaving the courthouse with their bodyguards, the couple tried to exit through the protocol door rather than the public entrance; court staff denied the request, and they left through the public entrance without answering reporters' questions.
The investigation into Melih Gökçek was launched following a report by journalist Murat Ağırel on the Gökçek family's companies and real estate in Germany on Aug. 29. The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office described the case as an inquiry into the transfer of unregistered funds to companies abroad.
The Ankara Municipality also filed a complaint on Aug. 7 with the prosecutor's Organized Crime Investigation Bureau against Gökçek, his family, and several municipal bureaucrats and businesspeople, before Ağırel's reporting became public.
Prior to the Gökçeks, Ağırel testified as a witness and submitted supporting documents to prosecutors. Afterwards, he said, the file could extend to 'too many names.'
Separately, the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office opened a review under organized crime provisions into 36 companies that took part in or won tenders from the Ankara Municipality and its subsidiaries. Prosecutors requested a full list of those tenders from the municipality, which instructed its relevant departments to prepare the files. Some of the 36 companies won municipal tenders during Gökçek's and Mansur Yavaş’s tenure as mayor.
Gökçek gave a statement as a suspect on Sept. 4. Then, the prosecutor's office announced that Ahmet and Hülya Gökçek had also been summoned as suspects in the same investigation and asked to appear Sept. 7. The announcement signaled that the case extended beyond Gökçek's personal wealth to the family's companies and investments in Germany.
Ağırel's first report, which triggered the investigation, said Hülya Gökçek registered the company HAMAG in Cologne on Aug. 30, 2022, with declared capital of €30,000, of which only €15,000 was paid in. The company later moved its registered address to Düsseldorf. Ağırel reported that HAMAG's balance sheet showed roughly €3.86 million in real estate holdings by 2024, and that Hülya Gökçek used the company to buy a Düsseldorf building containing 15 apartments and two shops.
