The ousted leader of the Turkish opposition, Özgür Özel, used a controversial meeting of MPs from the Republican People’s Party (CHP) held on 2 June at the parliament building to accuse the party’s reinstated leadership of collaborating with Erdoğan’s government, whilst reiterating his call for a new party congress to be convened to resolve the serious tensions and the deep internal crisis currently facing the party. During the meeting, in which Özel said that “a coup against the party aimed at coming to power” was being perpetrated, numerous party members chanted the slogan “Kemal the traitor”, in reference to Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
On Tuesday, Özel chaired the first meeting of the CHP parliamentary group since 21 May, when the Turkish courts handed down a ruling of “absolute nullity” that stripped him of the party’s general secretaryship, despite Kılıçdaroğlu having previously assured that the weekly meeting of CHP MPs in the Turkish Grand National Assembly would not take place. According to the Turkish newspaper Hürriyet, the meeting was well attended and Özel took to the podium amid applause and cheers from party members, whilst some in the audience chanted against his rival, whom they referred to as “Traitor Kemal”.
After promising “resistance, struggle and hope in the face of a major conspiracy” and criticising the government’s economic policies and high inflation, Özel referred to the events of last Sunday, when the CHP headquarters in Ankara was cleared by the police following the ruling issued by the Ankara Regional High Court. “They say there were certain people inside and that they locked the door. I’ll say it openly, all the records are there… If we hadn’t locked that door, things would have happened that none of us in this party could accept. But by locking it, we protected our children. By leaning against that door, they brought the greatest shame upon this party,” he said, referring to Kılıçdaroğlu’s supporters.
The former leader asserted that there are currently “two different images of the CHP”. “On the one hand, there are those who sit in our ancestral home, from which we were evicted by the police following a ruling of nullity; on the other, those who seek to protect their party and their country under the roof of Gazi’s (Mustafa Kemal Atatürk) other great achievement. The virtues of those here today are to defend democracy even when they lose, to serve the nation without discrimination when they win, to stand with the righteous against the unjust, to support the victims, to always side with the oppressed, to be a brother to the ant, and to rely solely on themselves to win,” he declared to those present.
Özel accuses Kılıçdaroğlu of siding with Erdogan’s government
“Although there is hope of coming to power when the time comes, on the other hand there are those who prefer to go with the flow of the current government and who find themselves in this party’s historic headquarters due to an unjust and illegal court ruling. You will not see them here,” he added, accusing his rival Kılıçdaroğlu of siding with Erdoğan’s government.
Referring to recent statements by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who claimed yesterday that “we are not, have not been, and will not be involved in any part of this political and legal struggle that has moved from the halls of parliament to the corridors of the courts”, Özel replied: “This is not an internal matter for the CHP. This is a matter between Erdoğan, his regime and the nation”.
During his speech, Özel denounced that his opponents have done everything possible to annul the 38th Ordinary Congress of the CHP held in 2023, which deposed Kılıçdaroğlu, but he assured that none of the allegations put forward have been substantiated; he also warned that the entire democratic system is “under attack”. “Today, defending the CHP means defending democracy; saving the CHP means saving Turkey’s hope for the future,” he emphasised.
Özel also referred to the letter sent by the party’s new leadership to parliament, which stated – as he claimed – that the CHP lacked a parliamentary group. “For heaven’s sake, our group is here: it is one, it is united and it stands firm. The CHP parliamentary group is still standing,” he declared, referring to Kılıçdaroğlu’s attempt to suspend the parliamentary session. Calling for restraint from his supporters, Özel added: “Friends, betrayal is not a punishment when heard aloud from others, but when felt within oneself, in solitude. Please, instead of these angry outbursts in this chamber, under this noble roof (of Parliament), let us chant slogans of hope for the future.”
Right now, no one knows who is leading Turkey’s main opposition party
Meanwhile, it has emerged in the media that the Office of the Speaker of Parliament formally consulted yesterday – one day before today’s meeting – the CHP’s official headquarters in Ankara to ask whether a meeting of its parliamentary group was scheduled for today. In the reply sent to the Turkish Grand National Assembly (parliament), the party leadership headed by Kılıçdaroğlu confirmed that no meeting had been called and that no meeting would take place (which, of course, did eventually happen).
In this regard, the Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, Numan Kurtulmuş, commented on the controversy surrounding who actually leads the CHP and, in statements made from Finland, made it clear that “the Turkish Grand National Assembly cannot take the place of a court. The Republican People’s Party must resolve this matter within the framework of its own internal dynamics and institutional structure, and put an end to this problem”.
The fact is that, with Kılıçdaroğlu based at the Republican People’s Party headquarters in Ankara as general secretary and leader of the CHP, and Özel using the Turkish parliament as – as he calls it in his public statements – his “new headquarters”, the CHP is currently facing a situation of de facto leadership split in two, with neither side willing to back down from their positions and no one knowing who is currently leading the party, whilst the rift between the two factions grows wider day by day.
Özel claims to have the signatures for a party congress… which Kılıçdaroğlu will not attend
Hürriyet newspaper has also reported that Özel held meetings yesterday with CHP MPs, although he did not meet with those parliamentarians known to be close to Kılıçdaroğlu. According to those close to him, the former CHP leader has already gathered the necessary signatures to convene an extraordinary congress; furthermore, 111 of the party’s 138 MPs are said to have expressed their support for Özel and, in a joint statement, to have called for the congress to be held as soon as possible, setting the date for 12 July.
However, according to the available information, Kılıçdaroğlu remains steadfast in his refusal to recognise the legitimacy of the leadership removed by the 21 May ruling, and will not attend a congress even if one is convened until the interim injunction is lifted: that is, until the Turkish Supreme Court issues a final ruling on the judicial decision that removed Özel from the CHP leadership.
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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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