Turkey’s ousted opposition leader Ozgur Özel said on Wednesday he would not leave the centre-left Republican People’s Party (CHP) and called on party members to vote for a new leader.
Meanwhile, CHP interim leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu said the party should hold a conference where delegates choose a new leader, adding that there was “no alternative” other than this action.
Why is there a dispute over leadership in Türkiye’s main opposition party?
Last week, a Turkish court annulled the results of the CHP’s 2023 leadership primary vote, in which Özel was elected leader. The ruling reinstated his defeated rival Kilicdaroglu.
It represents the latest in a series of legal setbacks for the opposition CHP and its leading figures, which supporters allege is part of a coordinated plot by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s government to harass the opposition. The government rejects such claims.
What Ozgur Özel says about the future of CHP
Attending a ceremony amid the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha in the western city of Izmir, Özel dismissed speculation he might form a new party.
“We have no intention of establishing a rival party,” Özel said. birgun Newspaper. “There are people who say we should resign, but no one should leave the party or resign. We will sort out the issue.”
Özel urged the party’s leadership to be decided by a vote among its 2 million members.
“We hope Kilicdaroglu will not attempt to lead a party for which he has not been democratically elected,” Özel said.
Özel was named party leader in 2023. He came to prominence partly because the CHP won consecutive victories in local elections in 2024, putting pressure on Erdogan and his long-serving Justice and Development Party (AK Party) government.
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, previously the CHP’s nominated presidential candidate to challenge Erdogan, was detained in March 2025 and later charged with corruption and other crimes, further boosting his profile in the face of widespread protests.
Following last week’s court decision, Özel’s supporters barricaded themselves inside the CHP headquarters in protest. On Sunday the police forcibly removed them.
How Kemal Kilicdaroglu sees the CHP conflict
Kilicdaroglu, 77, is a CHP veteran who has been at or near the party’s pinnacle for years, but who has not been able to defeat Erdogan in previous elections – notably his narrow defeat in a 2023 presidential face-off.
He said that this dispute should be resolved through the party congress.
Once the legal conditions to do so were met, a leadership vote “will be held, there is no alternative”, he told reporters.
He said this should be done on legal basis and should follow party rules.
Kilicdaroglu also rejected talk of expulsion from the party and said any such move would have to follow established rules.
He criticized Özel’s supporters for occupying the CHP headquarters, saying that closing the building to the public and parliamentarians was an inappropriate response to the court’s decision.
What does the CHP turmoil mean for Erdogan?
Meanwhile, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attended Eid al-Adha celebrations in Istanbul on Wednesday.
In charge of Turkey since 2003 – first as prime minister, then as president once he redefined that role in 2014 to hold most of the political influence – Erdogan and his AK Party’s dominance over the country’s politics has been gradually waning, culminating in their roughly 52–48% victory over Kilicdaroglu in 2023.
The AFP news agency spoke to several Turkish political analysts on Wednesday, all of whom argued that early elections appear more likely amid turmoil within the CHP.
“From Erdogan’s perspective, early elections could be beneficial if the CHP is forced to enter a divided, legally constrained and internally exhausted process,” Seren Selvin Korkmaz, co-founder of the Istanbul Political Research Institute, told AFP.
This scenario would also enable Erdogan to circumvent Türkiye’s rules on term limits. These limit them to two consecutive terms of up to five years each. Erdogan is already in his third term, but the rules have been in place since his second term. If contingent elections are held before the term limits are reached, the rule becomes invalid and the 72-year-old can contest elections again.
Meanwhile, legal action against several CHP figures has continued.
In addition to Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu being jailed, more than a dozen other CHP mayors have been arrested and charged with various crimes.
Erdogan and his supporters see it as the result of widespread rule of law problems in the opposition, while his critics call it an attempt to weaken and sideline his rivals in the courts.
Edited by: Rob Turner
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