The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) set the date for its critical convention to define a new charter, as the party’s former chair and others reportedly jostle for the CHP's top seat.
Türkiye’s oldest party founded by the republic’s first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, will hold a symbolic ceremony on Sept. 4 in Sivas, the Turkish province where Atatürk rallied the nation for unity before a war of independence in the aftermath of World War I more than a century ago. The convention will then open on Sept. 6 and continue until Sept. 9 in the capital Ankara.
The meeting will be a “charter convention” to redraw a road map for the party ahead of the 2028 general elections. The CHP is encouraged by the gains in the March 31 municipal elections and views the convention as the first step to winning the upcoming elections.
But the road to the government will likely be a bumpy one for the CHP as incumbent Chair Özgür Özel has his fair share of dissidents, despite being credited with unprecedented wins in the municipal elections, a first in decades for the CHP.
Unconfirmed reports say Özel’s dissidents push for a “convention with election.” Though the CHP portrays infighting and criticism within the party as something of the party’s “democratic tradition,” media outlets report that Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu and Özel’s predecessor Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu remain the main rivals of Özel. An alliance between Imamoğlu and Kılıçdaroğlu to oust Özel seems unlikely as Imamoğlu helped Özel win last November’s chairmanship election. Yet, political pundits say Imamoğlu can switch sides to topple Özel as municipal elections proved the CHP has a chance to win the 2028 vote.
Kılıçdaroğlu last month embarked on a tour of Turkish cities starting with Izmir, a stronghold of the opposition. His visits have all the undertones of a political comeback as Kılıçdaroğlu occasionally breaks his post-retirement silence in thinly veiled barbs at Özel.
Unconfirmed reports say that Kılıçdaroğlu loyalists in the party will attempt to include an election in the convention and try to oust Özel. A new election within the party will require the signatures of more than 50% of the delegates. Sabah newspaper reported recently that Kılıçdaroğlu already enjoys major support among the party’s stalwarts and may court those disillusioned with Özel after endorsing him at first to oust the former.
Kılıçdaroğlu, who set up an office in the capital Ankara briefly after he left the chairmanship, shied away from open criticism of Özel, but a normalization attempt between the CHP and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) apparently disturbed him. Kılıçdaroğlu boasted that he would not shake hands with “those in the Palace” about the Turkish Presidential Complex after Özel met Erdoğan four times after municipal elections, including two formal meetings. Özel, who maintained his respect for the former chair and never engaged in a public spat with his predecessor, responded that they were now “a ruling party in the eye of the public” and would act accordingly.
“Mr. Kemal has never been the leader of Türkiye’s number one party,” Özel said in recent comments upon Kılıçdaroğlu’s criticism of “normalization” with the government.
