 Party, has announced his resignation from the party, harshly criticizing İYİ's former leader for the party's poor performance in recent elections and her rapprochement with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.){kind=link}
Koray Aydın, one of the founders of the nationalist İYİ (Good) Party, has announced his resignation from the party, harshly criticizing İYİ’s former leader for the party’s poor performance in recent elections and her rapprochement with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Aydın, a former minister, said in a statement on X on Thursday that a recent meeting Meral Akşener had with President Erdoğan at the presidential palace was the “straw that broke the camel’s back” for him.
ALLAH’A ISMARLADIK İYİ PARTİ
Ayrılıklar zor ve hüzün doludur.
Haksızlık ve hukuksuzluklar karşısında cesur insanlar olarak, İYİ Parti'yi büyük umut heyecan ve hayallerle; büyük emek, gayret ve fedakarlıklarla kurduk.
İYİ Parti gerçek bir mücadelenin ve hikâyenin sonucu doğdu.
İYİ… pic.twitter.com/N3BGsv2Khd— Koray Aydın (@korayaydintr) June 27, 2024
Akşener had a surprise meeting with Erdoğan at his presidential complex in Ankara on June 5, sparking speculation about the purpose of the meeting and if Erdoğan was seeking to design the leadership of other parties.
Aydın accused the İYİ Party of deviating from the goals it set when it was established in 2017 and toeing the government’s line.
He said the İYİ Party was founded to fight against all kinds of injustice and unlawfulness in the country and the “one-man regime” established by Erdoğan but said the party’s policies have evolved in way so as to support the expansion of Erdoğan’s rule.
A video of Akşener’s promise to “fight to the death against Erdoğan,” which she made during an İYİ Party group meeting three years ago, went viral on social media after her meeting with Erdoğan, with many accusing her of not keeping her word and softening her stance against Erdoğan for personal gain.
Aydın held Akşener responsible for the İYİ Party’s loss of support in the March 31 local elections, saying that the meltdown in the party’s vote was a result of incorrect decisions made by Akşener in the run-up to the polls.
The politician said he was sorry he had to make this decision and would continue to serve as an independent lawmaker in parliament.
Akşener bid farewell to her role as party leader at an extraordinary party congress in April after the İYİ Party sustained a defeat in the March 31 elections, winning only 3.7 percent of the nationwide vote, comprising only one provincial municipality and 23 district and seven town municipalities.
Akşener has been at the helm of the party since its founding in 2017. She announced after the local elections on March 31 that she would not seek re-election as party leader.
The party’s deputy group chairman, Müsavat Dervişoğlu, was elected as the party’s new leader. Aydın who also ran for party leadership, lost the election.
The İYİ Party was established by Akşener, a former member of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), as an alternative for nationalists and center-right Turkish voters after she parted ways with the MHP.
The İYİ Party was able to enter parliament in the 2018 general election thanks to its alliance with the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which helped it circumvent a 10 percent election threshold. Akşener ran against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the 2018 presidential election but was defeated.
An influential figure in Turkish politics, Akşener served as interior minister from November 1996 through June 1997. She has been accused of links to mafia groups as well as a role in the unsolved murders and enforced disappearances that were frequent occurrences in the country’s predominantly Kurdish southeast in the 1990s.