Ekrem Imamoğlu, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) mayor for Istanbul, vowed to sever ties with anyone involved in infighting within his party. Imamoğlu, who is regarded as a potential presidential candidate for CHP in the 2028 elections, did not give names, but media outlets reported that his criticism targeted Mansur Yavaş, CHP mayor for the capital of Ankara, who is also considered a presidential candidate.
Addressing an event in Istanbul on Thursday, Imamoğlu said it was not the right time for people in the same party to get offended by “stepping on each other’s foot or a terse stare.” Yavaş made waves in the party when he was apparently initially barred from making a speech at a CHP convention earlier this month. Though Yavaş was given the floor at the convention where Imamoğlu made a lengthy speech, the mayor pointedly said he was only asked to speak at the last minute. “I wish I could have made a speech like (Imamoğlu),” he famously said at the convention. Yavaş’s remarks made waves in the party, which reportedly suffers from a division between supporters of Imamoğlu and party chair Özgür Özel and those still loyal to former chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
“Whoever makes a fuss about it is not my comrade, period,” Imamoğlu said on Thursday about “those preoccupied with intraparty issues and exaggerating them.”
In an interview with pro-CHP SZC TV earlier this month, Imamoğlu said the CHP should avoid “people trying to pit us against each other.” He commented on recent statements by Özel, who underlined that he won’t run for the presidency in the next elections. Özel described himself as a “football coach” in a recent interview and said he preferred to pick the “right player for penalty shoot” instead of “shooting for himself.” In his interview, Imamoğlu turned to the same analogy but insisted that “being a teammate is better than picking players.”
