ANKARA, Turkey — The man who was forcibly removed from leadership of Turkey’s largest opposition party announced Tuesday that he intends to build a brand-new political party to take on President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Ozgur Ozel made the announcement several months after a court order stripped him of his role as head of the Republican People’s Party, known as the CHP. Critics have called that ruling a politically motivated move designed to weaken opposition forces. The court decision also reinstated the party’s previous and widely unpopular leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, which triggered a strong backlash from many CHP supporters.
Speaking to CHP lawmakers and party officials gathered in parliament, Ozel declared, “We are establishing our new party by taking the first step together with the deputies chosen by our nation. These are the determined steps of a march toward governing Turkey.”
The new movement is expected to carry the name Yeni Parti — meaning New Party in Turkish — and is slated to be officially launched before the end of the week, according to reports.
A large portion of the CHP’s 135 members in Turkey’s 600-seat parliament are anticipated to break away and join the new party. Ozel predicted it would quickly become the parliament’s leading opposition force “by a wide margin.”
The legal chain of events began in May, when an appeals court threw out a 2023 party congress vote that had originally put Ozel in charge of the CHP. The court cited alleged procedural irregularities as the basis for its ruling and restored Kilicdaroglu to the leadership role.
Ozel, who is 51, had taken over from the 77-year-old Kilicdaroglu following what many political analysts described as 13 years of largely ineffective opposition to Erdogan. Ozel characterized the court proceedings as a legal assault on the CHP itself.
Beyond his own ouster, a wave of criminal investigations — primarily targeting CHP-led local governments on corruption allegations — has resulted in hundreds of party members and elected officials being detained. Among those imprisoned is Ekrem Imamoglu, Istanbul’s mayor, who is broadly regarded as the most formidable potential rival to Erdogan. Imamoglu has been behind bars since March of last year and faces several criminal cases that could carry sentences spanning decades.
Turkish government officials maintain that the country’s court system operates independently and free from political influence.
Erdogan, who has held power in Turkey for more than 20 years — first as prime minister and then as president — has denied any government interference in the judiciary. He has characterized the legal dispute that led to Ozel’s removal as an internal CHP matter.
During Ozel’s time leading the CHP, the party dealt a notable setback to Erdogan’s ruling party in the 2024 local elections, capturing several cities and tightening its grip on major municipalities it had first won five years prior, including both Istanbul and Ankara.
