İnce returns to CHP after over four-year departure
ANKARA
Muharrem İnce, leader of the Homeland Party and a former presidential candidate, has rejoined the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) upon an invitation from chair Özgür Özel, after parting ways with it four years ago.
“I have not come here today with arrogance or regret. I came here in response to a sincere and heartfelt invitation from our chairman. Sometimes separations happen due to disappointment, sometimes because one seeks hope through different avenues,” İnce said after being invited to the podium by Özel during a parliamentary group meeting on June 24.
“My return today is about reuniting with something I’ve missed,” İnce said.
İnce, who served within the CHP for many years and was its presidential nominee in 2018, left the party in February 2021 and went on to establish the Homeland Party in May that year.
Ahead of his return to the CHP, İnce chaired a meeting of his Homeland Party, where a decision was taken to dissolve the party. The formal dissolution will take place at an extraordinary congress in July.
For his part, Özel called on all members of the Homeland Party to join the CHP.
“Normally, I would pin a party badge on Muharrem İnce, but I won’t — he’s had that badge on his forehead since the day he was born,” Özel said.
During his earlier remarks during the speech, Özel criticized the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the government for remaining silent on the United States’ aerial attacks on three Iranian nuclear sites.
“Israel is the tool, a spoiled country by the U.S. waging aggression against everyone. Behind it is the U.S. and [President Donald] Trump. It is you [the AKP government] that did not condemn.”
Özel referred to the U.S. attacks on Iranian nuclear sites in a support to Israeli military campaign against Iran with the objective of destroying its nuclear capacity and changing regime.
“Democracy, for sure, needs to come to Iran but this must be done through the will of the people of Iran. No democracy will prevail with the words of the U.S. We never support this rhetoric,” he stated.
