The ousted leader of the Turkish opposition, Özgür Özel, tendered his resignation on 24 July from the historic Republican People’s Party (CHP), alongside 90 other MPs, to found his “New Party” (Yeni Parti), in a political manoeuvre that completely shifts the balance of power in the Turkish parliament.
A total of 91 MPs from the CHP, including Özgür Özel himself, left the CHP – founded by Atatürk in 1923 – and joined the founding committee of the so-called Yeni Parti. “May this be beneficial for the country, the nation, our party and all of us,” Özel said after signing the documents establishing the new political party, according to the Turkish news agency DHA.
Furthermore, Özgür Özel also updated the biographies on his social media profiles; his account on the X platform now features a photograph of him driving a tractor in Yozgat alongside the New Party logo, an image of Atatürk and the phrase: “The peasant is the master of the nation”.
Özel also shared a message on his social media: “The New Party has been founded by our nation. The New Workers’ Party, the New Pensioners’ Party, the New Civil Servants’ Party, the New Traders’ Party, the New Farmers’ Party, the New Women’s Party, the New Youth Party, the New Party of Turkey. May it be auspicious and successful,” he wrote.
Allegations against Erdoğan and Kılıçdaroğlu
Subsequently, Murat Emir, MP for Ankara, and Asu Kaya, MP for Osmaniye, submitted the application for registration of the new party to the Ministry of the Interior. Emir addressed the press outside the ministry’s headquarters, where he stated: “Today, together with our nation, our workers, our young people whose hopes have been shattered, who cannot find employment, our farmers who have given up farming and turned their backs on their fields, our pensioners condemned to a pension of 23,552 liras, our minimum-wage earners forced to work for an income well below the poverty line, who are ignored, our young people and our women, we are setting out on a blessed path filled with great hope”.
“As we set out on this path, we do not look back. With the mission entrusted to us by Mustafa Kemal, with the strength we draw from the nation’s forces, with our commitment to the Republic and our conviction to protect it to the very end, we continue on our way. We walk hand in hand and shoulder to shoulder with our nation. We leave behind the dirty schemes hatched in the palace (Erdoğan’s presidential palace), those who sat at the palace table, the buildings, the tables and the chairs,” he said, in a likely reference to Kılıçdaroğlu, whom Özel’s supporters accuse of being a traitor and of being part of an AKP plot to destroy the CHP.
“But we continue to move forward together with our entire nation, without excluding or marginalising anyone, to make this country a fairer, more equal and prosperous one, where work receives the reward it deserves. We will keep moving forward,” added the MP.
The CHP now has 44 MPs and has become the fifth-largest party in parliament
The new political party enters the Turkish parliament with 91 MPs, making it the second-largest bloc in the 600-seat chamber, behind only the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, which holds 277 seats. For its part, the CHP, until now the main opposition party, now holds only 44 seats and has fallen from second to fifth place in the Turkish Grand National Assembly, behind the pro-Kurdish DEM party (56 MPs) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) – an ally of the AKP – which holds 46 seats.
Özgür Özel’s decision to found a new party comes two months after an Ankara court triggered a political earthquake in Turkey at the end of May by annulling the CHP congress held in November 2023 – at which Özel ousted Kılıçdaroğlu after 13 years at the party’s helm – citing alleged irregularities relating to vote-buying. The ruling removed Özel from the CHP leadership and reinstated Kılıçdaroğlu, and since then Özel and his supporters have attempted to overturn the decision by unsuccessfully calling for an emergency party congress. Although the ruling has been appealed to the Supreme Court, the summer recess makes it unlikely that the court will issue a final judgement before the end of the year.
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Edited and reviewed by:
Pablo Gómez is a specialist in Turkey and has been editor-in-chief of Hispanatolia since 2011. He has been analysing current affairs and geopolitics in Turkey and the surrounding region since 2006.
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