The former chairman of Türkiye's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), Deniz Baykal, died at the age of 84, the current party leader announced on Saturday.

"I have learned with great sadness the death of Deniz Baykal, our chairman, a lover of Türkiye and the Republican People's Party, our lawmaker from Antalya province," Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said on Twitter.

"He left us a legacy full of stories of struggles. My condolences to our nation," Kılıçdaroğlu added.

Baykal suffered from circulatory problems in a major artery, and had received treatment in hospitals in the Turkish capital Ankara and Germany's Munich since 2017 before he returned to parliament in 2019.

When the senior lawmaker first won a parliamentary seat in 1973, he was the youngest Turkish deputy.