Turkey’s ousted main opposition leader Özgür Özel on Wednesday ruled out any plans to leave the crisis-hit Republican People’s Party (CHP) and form a new party, urging fellow members to stay put, Turkish media reported.
The CHP, Turkey’s oldest political party, has been badly shaken by a May 21 court ruling that overturned a 2023 party primary that elected Ozel as leader, reinstating his defeated rival Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
Three days later, riot police battered their way into the CHP’s Ankara headquarters, firing tear gas and beating party members before throwing them out, Özel told Agence France-Presse on Sunday evening.
Despite the crisis, Özel moved quickly to dispel rumors that he might leave the CHP to form a new political movement and urged party members to stay.
“We have no intention of forming a new party,” he told journalists after attending prayers in Manisa near the western resort of İzmir, on the first day of the Eid al-Adha holiday, the BirGün newspaper reported.
“There are those who say ‘we should resign,’ but no one should leave the party or resign. We will resolve this issue,” he said, repeating calls for a leadership primary “as soon as possible.”
“We hope Kılıçdaroğlu will not attempt to lead a party he was not democratically elected to head. I have a request for him: Let the leader be determined by the decision of our two million members.”
Critics have denounced the court decision as the latest brazen attempt to remove President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s main political rivals ahead of elections, which must be held by May 2028.
Pressure on the CHP has soared since its sweeping local election victory over Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2024, with more than a dozen of its mayors since arrested on charges ranging from graft to terrorism ties.
The March 2025 arrest and jailing of İstanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, the CHP’s presidential candidate and Erdoğan’s most powerful political rival, sparked Turkey’s worst street unrest in over a decade, with the party leading mass protests which thrust Özel into the limelight.
Since then the party has risen in the polls, while at the same time facing an array of lawsuits largely seen as politically motivated.
© Agence France-Presse