Özel’s New Party sets first leadership structure

ANKARA

Türkiye’s emergent main opposition New Party leader Özgür Özel on July 25 appointed the organization’s first executive board, retaining several close allies from his tenure at the Republican People’s Party (CHP).

The 10-member board includes three figures who served in similar roles under Özel’s final CHP leadership team before he broke away with dozens of his allies.

Ensar Aytekin will oversee party organizations, Nurhayat Altaca Kayışoğlu will be responsible for overseas groups and Zeynel Emre will continue as spokesperson.

Yunus Emre was appointed secretary-general, while Özgür Ceylan will oversee administrative and financial affairs and Yaşar Tüzün will be responsible for local governments.

Gizem Özcan will head legal and election affairs, Utku Çakırözer will oversee media and Aylin Yaman will be responsible for public relations.

Özel opted for a smaller executive board than the one he led at the CHP. However, officials plan to expand the leadership structure and adopt the party’s charter and program at its first ordinary convention.

Özel and 90 fellow lawmakers resigned from the CHP on July 24 to establish the New Party, dealing a historic blow to the country’s oldest political party and reshaping the balance of power in parliament.

The New Party enters parliament with 91 lawmakers, becoming the second-largest bloc in the 600-seat legislature after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), which holds 277 seats.

The CHP fell to 44 seats, also dropping behind the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) with 56 seats and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) with 46.

Özel’s departure came two months after an Ankara court annulled the CHP’s 2023 leadership election over allegations of vote-buying, removing him as leader and reinstating his defeated predecessor Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

Although Özel appealed the ruling, procedural delays meant the case reached the Court of Appeals only hours before it entered its summer recess, prompting him to move ahead with launching a new party.
Meanwhile, some top CHP members close to Özel were expected to remain temporarily within the party as a precaution against possible outcomes of the high court’s decision.

During an event in Istanbul on July 25, Kılıçdaroğlu said the CHP had “largely completed its purification.”
“We do not want politicians who steal or engage in corruption. No CHP member can stand alongside those who enrich themselves through public resources,” he said. “If you are engaged in corruption, you should immediately leave the party.”

He was referring to ongoing investigations into several CHP-run municipalities. A close ally of Özel and the CHP’s presidential candidate, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, has been jailed since March 2025 on graft allegations, along with hundreds of party officials. At least 27 CHP mayors are currently behind bars.

Özel’s party is not expected to initially seek transfers from CHP mayors in order to avoid creating divisions in local administrations, according to the media.