Ozgur Ozel new party splits Turkiye’s main opposition
Ozgur Ozel launched the New Party with 90 breakaway CHP lawmakers after a court-backed ouster, reshaping the opposition to Erdogan.
By Lucas Ferreira · Science & Environment Writer
3 min read
Ozgur Ozel’s new party has split Turkiye’s main opposition bloc after a court ruling removed him from the leadership of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP. Al Jazeera and Reuters reported that Ozel formed the New Party with 90 other breakaway CHP lawmakers, creating a fresh challenge to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan while also dividing his opponents.
Ozel, 51, presented the New Party as a renewed vehicle for defeating Erdogan, who has led Turkiye for more than two decades. He said the project represented “the hope of a new beginning” and that he hoped it would benefit the country, the nation, the party and its supporters, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters.
What is Ozgur Ozel's New Party?
The New Party is a political group formed by Ozel and lawmakers who left the CHP after his removal as chairman. It gives Ozel and his allies a separate organization from the CHP, the secularist party that had been Turkiye’s main opposition force.
The split followed a May 21 court decision that annulled the CHP congress that had chosen Ozel as leader. Al Jazeera and Reuters reported that the court cited alleged voter fraud and restored Ozel’s predecessor, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, to the party leadership.
Ozel and his supporters viewed the ruling as an intrusion by the courts into party affairs, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters. Days after the decision, police went into CHP headquarters to enforce it, and Kilicdaroglu’s administration later began disciplinary steps against people linked to Ozel.
The government has denied interfering with the judiciary. It has described the case as an internal CHP matter and said the annulment showed that democratic and legal institutions were working, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters.
Why did the CHP split matter?
Under Ozel, the CHP scored major victories in the 2024 local elections, including in Istanbul and Ankara. Al Jazeera and Reuters reported that those results gave Erdogan’s AK Party its biggest defeat in more than 20 years.
The opposition has also faced criminal investigations, many involving corruption allegations in CHP-run municipalities. Dozens of elected officials and party members have been detained, including Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, whom Al Jazeera and Reuters described as Erdogan’s main political rival.
Imamoglu is jailed pending trial on corruption charges, which he denies. His arrest set off large protests, while the government has rejected opposition claims of a crackdown and said Turkiye’s judiciary is independent.
What happens next for Turkiye's opposition?
The parliamentary arithmetic now shows the scale of the break. Al Jazeera and Reuters reported that Erdogan’s AK Party holds 277 seats in the 600-member parliament, while the CHP has 44 MPs after 91 lawmakers defected to the New Party.
The New Party is expected to draw many CHP voters and offer a reorganized opposition campaign against Erdogan, according to Al Jazeera and Reuters. The same reporting said some observers believe a more fragmented opposition could improve Erdogan’s chances of extending his rule.
After the New Party’s first meeting in Ankara, Ozel told reporters he would support Imamoglu as the presidential candidate in the next elections. He said Imamoglu “was not elected as the presidential candidate by a single political party, but by more than 15 million people,” according to Al Jazeera and Reuters.
This story draws on original reporting from Al Jazeera.