CHP refers former Özel aides to disciplinary board

ANKARA

The Republican People’s Party (CHP) has referred 49 members, including senior figures, to its disciplinary board seeking their expulsion, deepening an internal power struggle that has intensified in recent months.

Those referred include several figures who held senior positions under former CHP leader Özgür Özel, including members of his so-called shadow cabinet.

The list includes Gül Çiftçi Binici, Yalçın Karatepe, Zeliha Aksaz Şahbaz, Yankı Bağcıoğlu, Pınar Uzun Okakın, Sevgi Kılıç, Bahadır Erdem, Serkan Özcan, Kerim Rota and Aylin Nazlıaka, all of whom held senior roles during Özel’s leadership.

Former CHP Secretary-General Selin Sayek Böke and senior party figure İlhan Cihaner were also among those referred to the disciplinary board.

CHP spokesman Müslim Sarı said Aug. 26 that the members had acted in ways that were incompatible with the party’s legal and organizational identity.

“We had said that we do not consider it ethical for people who remain within the legal identity of the party to work for other political parties and that we would evaluate this within the relevant provisions of party discipline,” he told reporters.

Sarı was referring to the New Party, Türkiye’s emergent main opposition movement established by Özel after he left the CHP along with 90 lawmakers.

Özel’s departure came two months after an Ankara court annulled the CHP’s 2023 leadership election over alleged irregularities, removing Özel as chair and reinstating former leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

New Party spokesman Zeynel Emre accused the CHP administration of taking disciplinary action to protect itself against a possible ruling by the Court of Appeals that could overturn that decision.

“This is an immoral and self-serving measure taken against the possibility that the Court of Appeals could... remove the administration from the party,” he said.

The reinstated CHP administration has previously launched disciplinary proceedings against dozens of provincial leaders and several senior lawmakers.