Özel camp eyes new party by August as CHP rift widens

ANKARA

Ousted main opposition leader Özgür Özel has signaled he could move with his allies toward forming a new party by the end of July or early August, as an escalating leadership dispute within the Republican People’s Party (CHP) continues.

Forming a new party “will be a process that takes a week or two,” Özel said in televised remarks on SZC TV on July 14.

The dispute within Türkiye’s largest opposition party was triggered by a court ruling in May that annulled the CHP’s 2023 convention over alleged irregularities. The ruling reinstated former party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and his administration.

Özel’s faction has challenged the ruling and applied for the appointment of a committee to lead the party toward an extraordinary vote. The group has collected more than 800 signatures from party delegates demanding a new convention.

However, Kılıçdaroğlu’s restored leadership has argued that the court decision prevents such a gathering and said the party should follow its regular congress calendar, which is scheduled to begin in September.

“Steps will be taken around the end of July or the beginning of August. We are working on the name and logo,” Özel said on July 14.

“We will proceed in a coordinated and simultaneous manner by speaking with our elected provincial chairs.”

Özel has continued to lead CHP’s parliamentary meetings after the court ruling. During a weekly gathering on July 14, he challenged Kılıçdaroğlu to compete for the party leadership in an election open to all members.

“Let’s both compete for the party leadership with all members; the loser should leave the CHP. The loser should leave politics,” Özel said, describing his proposal as a “historic call.”

Özel added that he would step away from politics if he failed to secure more than 90 percent of the vote from the party’s roughly 2 million members.

Earlier, Kılıçdaroğlu rejected the idea that Özel should leave the party, saying in a television interview on TV100 that there was no reason for such a move.

“He can fight within the party; I have no objection to that,” Kılıçdaroğlu said on July 13, while warning that “there will be no parallel structure within the party.”