 has been shaken by the resignation of Mesut Özarslan, a district mayor in Ankara, triggering a bitter public dispute between party leader Özgür Özel and the departing mayor amid a wave of defections from the party, the Anka news agency reported.){kind=link}
Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has been shaken by the resignation of Mesut Özarslan, a district mayor in Ankara, triggering a bitter public dispute between party leader Özgür Özel and the departing mayor amid a wave of defections from the party, the Anka news agency reported.
Özarslan, the mayor of Ankara’s Keçiören district, resigned from the CHP on Sunday and subsequently accused party leader Özel of sending him threatening and insulting messages, including language he said targeted his family and moral values.
The mayor was elected in the March 2024 local polls, receiving around 48 percent of the vote. The district was taken over by the CHP for the first time in 35 years with Özarslan’s election.
Özel has denied the accusations, accusing Özarslan of lying and insisting that while his messages were harsh, they did not include profanity directed at the mayor’s parents or family.
Speaking to journalist İsmail Saymaz of Halk TV, Özel said: “He claims I insulted his family, his mother and father. That is not true. I did not involve his parents, but in politics there can be anger and harsh words.”
According to Özel, he had previously defended Özarslan against corruption allegations and felt betrayed by his decision to leave the party.
Saymaz quoted Özel as telling Özarslan that he had trusted him when accusations of wrongdoing were raised, only for the mayor to later align himself with political rivals.
Özel acknowledged using strong language, saying he had warned that Özarslan’s actions would bring shame, but denied claims that he had insulted the mayor’s family or “national and moral values.”
Özarslan, however, filed a criminal complaint against Özel with the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on Monday, alleging threats and insults.
Özel also said Özarslan’s defection had been anticipated, claiming he had been told days earlier by CHP lawmaker Adnan Beker that Özarslan would soon receive a ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) badge, a symbolic step marking his move to the ruling party.
In a confirmation of Özel’s claim, Özarslan signaled on Monday that he might switch parties following his resignation.
Speaking at a press conference in Keçiören, he said neither the AKP nor its nationalist ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), was “distant” to him, leaving open the possibility of joining either of the parties.
“We are people of the great Turkish nation. We do not use obscene language towards anyone,” Özarslan said. “It saddens us all that a party founded by Atatürk has fallen into such a situation,” he said, referring to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey and also the CHP.
The dispute has attracted renewed attention to a broader pattern of defections from opposition ranks. In 2024, 2025 and early this year, several lawmakers elected from opposition parties, including the CHP, the İYİ (Good) Party and others, switched allegiance to the AKP, prompting criticism in opposition circles and sparking debate over political ethics and party discipline.
Defections have increasingly affected local government. In August 2025 nine opposition mayors, six of them from the CHP, joined the AKP during a public ceremony marking the ruling party’s anniversary. Opposition figures argued at the time that the moves followed stepped-up inspections, investigations and administrative pressure on municipalities governed by rival parties.
Last month, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also welcomed four opposition mayors into the AKP, personally pinning their party badges on their lapels ahead of a meeting of the party’s Central Decision and Executive Board (MKYK) in Ankara. Two of those mayors were from the CHP.