Ankara district mayor resigns from CHP amid transfer speculation

ANKARA

The mayor of Ankara’s Keçiören district, Mesut Özarslan, has resigned from the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) amid disputes over reports that he may transfer to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).

In a statement announcing his resignation, Özarslan said CHP leader Özgür Özel sent him WhatsApp messages late on Feb. 7 containing “insults, threats and slander incompatible with political courtesy, party ethics, public responsibility and humanity.” Özel has not confirmed the messages.

Media reports suggested the messages were sent in response to claims that Özarslan was preparing to join the AKP, with some outlets reporting he could formally join the ruling side at its weekly meeting on Feb. 11.

"My reaction is not against the institutional identity of the Republican People’s Party or its Atatürkist and Republican voters, but the current management approach that has lost political civility and state seriousness," Özarslan wrote on X.

Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş criticized the move, accusing Özarslan of “making a decision that casts a shadow on the will of the people of Keçiören” and calling it “unacceptable.”

Following Özarslan’s resignation, CHP's Keçiören municipal council members Serkan Bedirhanoğlu, Cihan Ayhan and Azra Ceylan Öztürk also announced they were leaving the party.

Özarslan previously resigned from the İYİ (Good) Party in December 2023 before joining the CHP, campaigning alongside Yavaş and winning the Keçiören mayoralty with about 48 percent of the vote in the 2024 polls. He earlier served as chairman of PORTAŞ, the Ankara Municipality’s construction company, between 2019 and 2024.

Resignations and inter-party transfers have accelerated over the past year, with several local officials switching affiliations. In the western city of Aydın, Mayor Özlem Çerçioğlu and the mayors of Söke, Yenipazar and Sultanhisar districts resigned from their parties and joined the AKP, while the acting mayor of Istanbul’s Beykoz district and the mayor of Altınova in neighboring Yalova also moved to the ruling party.

In Istanbul’s Gaziosmanpaşa district, an acting mayor election was held after CHP's Hakan Bahçetepe was arrested as part of a corruption probe. With the ruling party holding a majority in the municipal council, AKP’s Eray Karadeniz was elected acting mayor.

Elsewhere, Şehitkamil Mayor Umut Yılmaz in the southeastern city of Gaziantep resigned and continues as an independent, while Hasankeyf Mayor Hamit Tutuş in nearby Batman resigned from the CHP and joined the AKP.