Criminal complaint for unannounced party membership

As of March 2023, 123 political parties continue their activities in Turkey. Days before the elections, those who made inquiries via e-Government complained about this situation by announcing on social media that they were members of different political parties without their knowledge. It turned out that one of the names who stated that he was a member of a political party without his knowledge was Aydın Ağaoğlu, the President of the Consumer Confederation. Ağaoğlu, who became a member of a political party without knowing it since the second term of 2022, reacted by sharing his membership on his social media account. When Ağaoğlu could not get an answer to his questions, he ended up in Ankara Gölbaşı Courthouse. Ağaoğlu, who filed a criminal complaint, warned the citizens against similar situations.

«EVERYONE BE CAREFUL IF THEY DID THIS EVEN TO ME»

Consumer Confederation President Aydın Ağaoğlu warned citizens to check their political party memberships via e-Government and said, “My advice to everyone is to check their political party memberships. They can easily do this from the e-Government application. In order to enter the application, it is enough to write ‘Political Party Membership Inquiry’ in the search engines. By querying in this way, if they have a membership, they will not press the leave button. Let them not separate so that the evidence does not disappear. When I questioned it, it was revealed that even I was a member of a political party. Actually, I neither live in Ankara nor have anything to do with Gölbaşı district. But I was registered in the Gölbaşı district of a political party. I became a member in the second term of 2022. While making this recording, they accessed my personal data. My TR ID number, mother and father names are all correct. Where did they get this information? They will account for this to the Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor, because I have filed a criminal complaint. In addition, a person’s signature is required for political party membership. There is a forged signature, as they gave it to the Office of the Chief Public Prosecutor; We have applied to the prosecutor’s office to present misleading documents to official authorities, forgery in private documents, and to take action due to violation of personal data protection law. The Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office of the Supreme Court of Appeals used my information, in violation of the personal data protection law, by forging a private document between articles 204-207 of the TCK, making false statements to the official authorities, for making a false statement to the official authorities because it declared me as its member. That’s why I filed a complaint. «As a consumer advocate, everyone should be careful if they even did this to me,» he said.

«DO NOT CLICK ON E-GOVERNMENT LINKS FROM OTHER PLACES»

Ağaoğlu stated that they were made a member with the personal data obtained through fake sites and said, “Sometimes, fake sites are made for voter inquiry registration. When people transfer their information there, they may face scammers. Do not click on e-Government application links from other places. When they shared on social media about this, many citizens stated that they were also registered. If I were to be a candidate from a party, it may be possible to face an obstacle because I appear to be a member of another party.»

Barış Şahin stated that these people should be punished and said, “Why do these kinds of things happen? I think the authorities should intervene as soon as possible. If such things are done without the knowledge of the public, it is a great crime. This situation falls under human rights, I think they should be punished,» he said.

İsmet Kerez said, “This is a very wrong thing. It is a violation of human rights, they should be punished,» he said.