Breaking News... 13 people were detained: First statement from ABB after the concert investigation

The Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office has launched an investigation into 32 concerts organized by the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality between 2021 and 2024.

Financial crimes units detained 13 people this morning.

Following the operation, the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality released a written statement.

The statement is as follows:

"It has been reflected in the public domain that a number of detentions have taken place under the allegation that expenditures made for concerts caused public loss. In our previous statement dated 11.11.2024 regarding this incident, the details of the event were explained.

The incident was immediately reported to our Municipality's Board of Inspectors, the subject was examined in detail, and a report was prepared stating that there was no irregularity or public loss. Later, Civil Service Inspectors examined the matter, after which an investigation was opened against 9 people and investigation permission was granted for 6 people. Upon the objection of the relevant parties and the prosecutor's office, investigation permission was granted for 9 people. In the meantime, we have learned that the prosecutor's office has sent the file to an expert witness.

Under normal circumstances, our employees who are still working at the Municipality could have been invited to the police station to give their statements. However, as is customary, the incident was sought to be pulled into a different dimension and reflected to the public under the name of an 'operation against the Ankara Metropolitan Municipality.' Yet, if these individuals in question were invited, they are all in a position to go and give their statements.

However, all transactions of our Culture Department had previously been audited by the Court of Accounts and no findings were encountered. Furthermore, a retrospective 10-year inspection was conducted by Civil Service Inspectors between 2021 and 2022, and no criticism or findings were encountered regarding the tender procedure. Therefore, no irregularities were found in the Culture Department tenders.

The largest expense in concerts does not stem from artist fees, but from stage setup and sound systems. How the stage is set up also changes according to the size of the concert area.

Indeed, when the investigation conducted by our administration's Board of Inspectors examined the concerts reflected in the public domain, it received an offer from another company capable of doing work of this scale, and a price of 56 million TL was quoted for a concert of the same scale. During the trial to be held, when the costs of private concerts or those conducted by the Ministry of Culture's 'Culture Road' festival and concerts held by official institutions regarding equivalent concerts are transferred to the file, it will become clear whether there is a public loss or not.

As for the expenditure dimensions; 33 million dollars were spent on 80 events held between 2014-2019 during the AK Party era, while 30 million dollars have been spent on 426 events from 2019 until October 29, 2024.

The incident was reflected to the public as 154 million TL in public loss. First of all, we would like to state that the ABB has filed complaints against Melih Gökçek and the authorities of that period in approximately 100 files belonging to the old period to date, with allegations of 'bid rigging' and 'public loss'.

Of these files:

• In 55 of them, an expert report was obtained and a decision of non-prosecution was issued.

• In 11 of them, a decision of non-prosecution was issued without obtaining an expert report.

• In 11 of them, an indictment was prepared.

However, there has been no judicial sanction or arrest warrant in any file.

There are still 5 files pending.

Two of these are files in which Melih Gökçek himself is a party, and 5 files have been kept waiting for 6 years without any action being taken. Our expectation is that investigations are carried out equally without granting privileges to anyone and that justice is served.

AS WE WILL ANNOUNCE IN A PRESS CONFERENCE SOON, the fact that the expert reports prepared regarding the complaints we have made are always written by the same people, the files closed with the reports prepared by these people, and the political identities of the suspects in these files will be shared with the public. The assignment of the same people out of 4 thousand experts constitutes a serious problem.

For example, although the current loss resulting from the cable car tender given to the AK Party Provincial Vice Chairman is approximately 58 million dollars (2.4 billion TL), no action has been taken.

Again, the same experts prepared an expert report saying 'there is no signature' despite the existence of an official approval bearing Melih Gökçek's signature, and subsequently, a decision of non-prosecution was issued by the prosecutor's office.

Another example is that millions of liras of public loss occurred without receiving any service within the scope of the contract made with Seymen Water in 2015. A criminal complaint has been filed against the relevant parties, the prosecutor has changed 16 times in the file, and an indictment has still not been prepared.

Our expectation is that the investigations regarding these pending files be carried out immediately, and that detention, house search, and arrest measures be applied against the individuals.

Finally; even the fact that Melih Gökçek announced this on his social media account before the operation reveals the political dimension of the event. We leave it to the discretion of the public that this person, who should be the one actually investigated, reported this situation.

Regards..."