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Infighting in the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) between supporters of the current and former chairs reached new heights after a controversial move. Gürsel Tekin, deputy chair of the party under incumbent chair Özgür Özel’s predecessor, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, has accepted taking over the Istanbul chairpersonship of the party after a court order.
Tekin says he will start his tenure on Monday, while the CHP administration vowed to stop him. Although Tekin, who was expelled from the party after accepting the job and the CHP administration dismiss it as a personal feud, turmoil within the party will likely take a new turn on Monday. The CHP’s deputy parliamentary group chair, Ali Mahir Başarır, said last week that no one can “take over our party illegally” and said the party would “react harshly” if Tekin comes to the party’s Istanbul offices to replace provincial chair Özgür Çelik on Monday.
Çelik was suspended from duty last week by a court order amid a lawsuit by a former CHP member who filed a complaint against alleged irregularities and fraud in a 2023 election where Çelik was elected into office. The CHP has claimed that the verdict was erroneous and the court had no authority to suspend a party’s chair.
Tekin told the Milliyet newspaper on Sunday that he would be at the Istanbul offices of CHP at 12 p.m. local time on Monday and everyone, “especially the chairperson,” knew “how a determined member of the CHP I am.” He branded CHP supporters opposing him as “trolls” and he had “no time for this.” “I will never give up this task,” Tekin said, while insisting that he was not a “trustee appointed by the court” but merely “a member of a delegation tasked with calling for a new election for the CHP chair for Istanbul.”
The party will convene an extraordinary congress on Sept. 21, framing the move as a response to mounting political pressure. The congress will follow a Sept. 15 hearing where Özel’s chairpersonship can be nullified.
The CHP is plunging into one of the most chaotic periods in its history, with Chair Özgür Özel facing open rebellion, expulsion battles, court-appointed trustees and mounting speculation that the party could fracture entirely.
The sense of internal collapse is amplified after Tekin’s appointment. Özel has blasted the court’s decision and the CHP has expelled Tekin from the party by a disciplinary decision, seemingly to delegitimize his eligibility as acting provincial chair. Özel also promised to discharge “anyone who accepts the trustee appointment, be it Tekin or anyone else,” and the party is now floating expelling the four other trustees.
What began as Özel’s aggressive moves against dissenting party members has now spiraled into a full-blown crisis that undermines the CHP’s long-touted claims of internal democracy.
Party figures accuse Özel of acting out of fear of losing his seat, resorting to expulsions instead of addressing bribery scandals within CHP-run municipalities, the Turkish newspaper Sabah wrote Friday.
Former CHP MP Barış Yarkadaş, a journalist and longtime party insider, blasted the expulsions, accusing Özel of targeting loyal members while turning a blind eye to confessed wrongdoers. “There is not a single stain on Gürsel Tekin’s 40-year party history. Instead of expelling him, expel Ertan Yıldız, who has confessed six times. Do you have the courage to do that?” Yarkadaş demanded. His remarks triggered yet another round of disciplinary complaints against Yarkadaş.
Özgür Özel’s election to helm Türkiye’s oldest party in November 2023 instilled new hope in the main opposition repeatedly defeated by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). But soon, Özel found himself facing accusations of fraud and vote-buying in the November election with former delegates coming forward to accuse Özel’s close circle of offering bribes to them to sway the vote in favor of Özel.
According to reporting by BBC Türkçe, the possibility of “absolute nullity” looms over the case about vote-buying. If judges annul the 2023 congress where Özel was elected, the chairperson would be stripped of his mandate, and Kılıçdaroğlu, who led the party for more than a decade before narrowly losing to Özel, would automatically return as chair.
Party insiders say Özel attempted to meet with Kılıçdaroğlu before a June 30 hearing but was rebuffed. That silence is now seen as a signal that the former leader could step back in if the court clears the way. Some officials warn that if Kılıçdaroğlu is restored by court order, headquarters loyal to Özel may bar him from reentering the party building.
Beyond the courtroom drama, the CHP is floating an even more dramatic rupture: the creation of a new party. BBC Türkçe reported that some CHP figures see this as the “worst-case scenario,” but also a necessary contingency if the judiciary annuls the congress. Preparations for a “reserve party,” though cloaked in secrecy, are said to be underway.
The reasoning, according to party insiders, is that if Kılıçdaroğlu returns and consolidates control, CHP support could “hit rock bottom.” In that case, loyalists to Özel and the current leadership would not “leave the nation without options” and would continue under a new banner.
Özel on Saturday told reporters that appointment of a trustee to his seat after the Sept. 15 hearing was possible, but that the trustee would last only for six days and in this period, the party would elect a new chair. Özel was confident of winning such an election and claimed this move to hold a new vote was legal. He also claimed the party was facing a conspiracy, though he shunned linking former CHP members to this conspiracy. Özel said delegates had already started a petition for the renewal of the November 2023 election.
