Intraparty tensions are sweeping Türkiye’s Republican People's Party (CHP) on the 101st anniversary of its foundation.
The party convened over the weekend for a turbulent congress to map out its bylaws, including issues on lawmaker terms and pre-elections, but a petty squabble between the party’s aspiring presidential candidates overshadowed the spirit of unity.
Taking the stage after Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, who delivered an hour-long well-prepared fiery speech where he issued out directives to the delegates and lawmakers, Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş was visibly upset as he lamented being caught unprepared and notified of his speech only an hour before.
Seemingly hitting out at Imamoğlu, Yavaş said in a tone that sent chills across the room: "I too would have liked to make a speech like Mayor Imamoğlu but I was only told to speak an hour ago. We could have written a speech if they had notified me at least the night before."
It was later revealed that CHP Secretary-General Selin Sayek Böke, known for her lobbying for Imamoğlu’s campaign of change after the party lost last year’s general elections, did not inform Yavaş of the speech for three days before the convention.
Yavaş also learned Imamoğlu would be speaking at the convention hours before the program, while CHP Chair Özgür Özel was unaware of the discriminatory attitude toward Yavaş, media reports claimed.
Furthermore, minutes before he took to the dais Yavaş was warned by Gökhan Zeybek, another pro-Imamoğlu figure, to keep his speech short.
The incident has sparked rumors that Yavaş was deliberately sabotaged at a key convention for the party to tip the scales against him, especially as he has seen increasing support to assume a more active role in the bid for CHP leadership, if not the 2028 presidential race.
Factions of reformists and traditionalists have run deep in Türkiye’s secularist and oldest party since former Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu lost the presidential bid to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the opposition parliamentary majority to his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). Despite messages of unity and warnings of "being pitted against each other," rivalries have become apparent in the party between Imamoğlu, Özel and Kılıçdaroğlu.
While Özel is busy sidelining dissidents looking to bring Kılıçdaroğlu back, the CHP’s popular mayors are trying to cultivate support for the next presidential race.
Imamoğlu, who shot to fame when he won the 2019 elections for Istanbul’s mayoral seat in two separate votes, is the frontrunner with strong ambitions for the Turkish presidency.
In the municipal vote earlier this year, he once again defeated the AK Party in Istanbul, something political pundits tied to support for İmamoğlu among non-CHP voters.
Before the top office, Imamoğlu is said to be mounting a secret bid for CHP chairmanship, which effectively translates to Turkish opposition leadership, as CHP is the biggest opposition party.
Yavaş on the other hand is hesitant to take the reins and he has so far refrained from bold declarations while Kılıçdaroğlu often asserts his involvement in the covert race.