A deputy chair of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has resigned from all her party and political posts amid allegations over lucrative stock-market transactions, as a wider financial investigation, a pensioner’s suicide at a protest and the conviction of a comedian for insulting the president add to mounting pressure on the government
Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya, a former family and social policies minister, said she had asked Erdogan to relieve her of her duties so allegations involving her and her husband, İlyas Kaya, could be fully investigated. Her resignation was accepted.
ankara’da aym önünde emekli maaşlarına zam talebiyle düzenlenen eylemde emekli polis memuru intihar etti. halkı bu duruma düşüren hükümet baş sorumludur. pic.twitter.com/l0m37z2Yem
— Ateizm ve Din (@AteizmVeDin) September 25, 2026
The allegations concern investments of 163 million Turkish liras (roughly 2.9 million euros) that Kaya and her husband are alleged to have made in shares of shipbuilder Özata Denizcilik, followed five months later by withdrawals of more than two billion liras.
Kaya said she was assuming political and moral responsibility to ensure that the investigation could proceed without doubt or suspicion.
The case forms part of a wider investigation into suspected market manipulation and investment-fund transactions. Authorities have arrested dozens of suspects, including former Central Bank deputy governor Erkan Kilimci, while 131 investment funds involving hundreds of thousands of investors and more than US$18 billion in assets have been ordered to liquidate.
The investigation comes as Turkey faces continuing pressure over the cost of living. On Friday, retired police officer Ali Ş., 60, died after shooting himself during a pension protest outside the constitutional court in Ankara.
Pensioners had gathered to demand higher payments, including the extension of a pay increase granted to serving public employees. The victim had told fellow demonstrators that he could no longer make ends meet. He had previously urged people to attend the protest, calling on the authorities to hear pensioners’ demands.
Separately, comedian Deniz Göktaş, 32, was sentenced Monday to a total of 19 months and five days in prison for insulting Erdogan and “denigrating religious values”.
The Istanbul court acquitted Göktaş of a separate charge of glorifying crime and criminals and ordered his release from pretrial detention. He had been held since July 3 after being arrested at Istanbul Airport upon returning from a holiday abroad.
The case centered on jokes in a viral YouTube special about women wearing Islamic swimwear. The indictment also accused Göktaş of praising a criminal group and referring to Erdogan as a “dictator.”
Göktaş denied the charges and said in court that he had expected to be detained but returned to Turkey because he wanted to persuade young people not to leave the country.
The developments come as Erdogan’s government prepares for the next electoral cycle, with economic pressures, financial-market investigations and disputes over political expression increasingly forming part of the domestic political debate.
