As the newly elected Özgür Özel takes over the Turkish opposition leadership from Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, uncertainty is brewing again at their Republican People’s Party (CHP) over an apparent diarchy that could threaten a much-anticipated change.
Pro-change members wrestled control of the CHP at a tense, hourslong intraparty vote on Sunday, ending a 13-year term for incumbent Kılıçdaroğlu after squandering what many viewed as the opposition’s best chance to end President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s two-decade governance in May’s general elections.
Özel, a 49-year-old former pharmacist, promised a brighter political future for the fractured CHP, as well as victory in the upcoming local elections.
“We have believed in turning hopelessness into hope; we are hopeful,” Özel said Sunday, surrounded by applauding party members and standing alongside Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu.
Imamoğlu supported Özel in a push for change at the CHP that has long been bogged down by infighting.
After winning the 2019 municipal elections in Istanbul from Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party) for the first time in two decades, Imamoğlu was seen as a potential new leader for the party and challenger for the presidency.
However, Kılıçdaroğlu chose to run himself against Erdoğan in the May elections despite several previous losses.
After the vote, he came under fire for refusing to step down as the leader of the CHP, which, under Kılıçdaroğlu’s 13-year term, failed to surpass a historic ceiling of 25% nationwide support.
According to ex-member Mehmet Sevigen, Imamoğlu and Özel’s union could lead to discrimination of pro-Kılıçdaroğlu members, which would deepen the cracks at the party and even cause its “destruction.”
“We must wait and see what the future holds for CHP and what the new administration will do,” Sevigen, a prominent CHP politician who previously served as a minister and a lawmaker until his discharge in 2021, exclusively told Daily Sabah.
On Sunday, the CHP also elected a new party council and central executive committee, decked with familiar faces and “fresh deputies unable to realize their own projects,” Sevigen said.
“What kind of change Özel can deliver will become apparent once they rewrite the party charter,” he noted, including promises of reforming democracy at the CHP and reversing Kılıçdaroğlu’s policies.
Pointing to nearly two dozen delegates elected to the party council by Imamoğlu’s nomination, he implied a “two-headed leadership” situation between the mayor and the new chair.
Özel has vowed to patch over the cracks and reunite the CHP, but “if their crew ostracizes hardworking provincial and district mayors that backed Kılıçdaroğlu, things would be dire for the CHP,” Sevigen argued.
“Should Özel succeed in his effort to keep the party together and unified, they have a shot at the local elections,” he added.
This could also translate positively to CHP voters who have grown resentful over back-to-back losses in the last two decades, Sevigen said.
“They would give Özel a shot since they have long wanted Kılıçdaroğlu gone.”
But in his victory speech, Özel has tipped his hat to Selahattin Demirtaş, the jailed ex-leader of the PKK-affiliated Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) and Osman Kavala, a businessperson convicted of orchestrating the notorious 2013 Gezi Park riots in Istanbul.
Sevigen argued such talk could generate clout within the party but would “dearly cost votes among the public.”
“What matters beyond changing the party itself is being able to reach out and touch the people,” he said.
Imamoğlu and Kılıçdaroğlu were backed by the HDP in the latest elections, which unsettled many CHP voters who considered it as “plain cooperation with terrorist organizations,” namely the PKK.
Hours after Özel’s election, Erdoğan repeated his accusation that the CHP was associated with terrorist organizations.
“One is no better than the other. They are no different than each other,” Erdoğan said of Özel and Kılıçdaroğlu. “You lost 12-13 elections; you were always with them (terror groups). The one who won, you were also with them.”
Özel will lead the CHP into local elections on March 31, 2024, where the party hopes to keep hold of the key municipalities it won in 2019, including the capital, Ankara, Türkiye’s biggest city, Istanbul, and other major cities.
The AK Party is entering the race with a full head of steam as Erdoğan is zeroed in on seizing back the capital and Istanbul – where the Turkish leader grew up and launched his political career as mayor.
Since 2019, however, Imamoğlu has lost some of his luster and is currently facing the threat of being barred from politics by Turkish courts. He has been convicted of insulting a public official and could be forced to resign should the ruling be upheld.
The CHP-led six-party opposition alliance fell apart after underperforming in May polls, with the second-biggest partner, the Good Party (IP), dumping the blame on Kılıçdaroğlu’s unpopularity.
Both the IP and HDP are now planning to compete with their mayoral candidates next year, complicating CHP’s odds in key constituencies.
Sevigen doesn’t believe Özel would reassemble the bloc but acknowledges a possibility of “cooperation” with the IP leader Meral Akşener in Istanbul and Ankara.
“The Good Party’s support doesn’t even surpass 2% in Istanbul, so it’s plausible they’re bargaining for district mayoralties just so Imamoğlu can be reelected,” Sevigen claimed.
“At any rate, the CHP must enter the race with its own identity, otherwise, votes are lost and all efforts are in vain,” he said.
