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Although the administration strives hard to mute the internal feud, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) sees a deepening divide among its members. More precisely, it is a fight between “old school” and a new, at least in the name, generation. Tuesday’s ceremonies to mark the party’s 102nd anniversary demonstrated cracks in the unity the party boasted.
At the heart of the dispute is the state of the party’s Istanbul branch. Gürsel Tekin, former vice chair of the party, took over the branch’s top chair in the city formally on Monday, defying calls by the party, which quickly moved to expel him. Tekin was appointed by a court order earlier this month after CHP’s Istanbul chairperson, Özgür Çelik, was suspended from office by an Istanbul court over allegations of fraud in a 2023 election in which he was elected to his post.
Tekin’s arrival at the branch’s building in Istanbul’s Sarıyer district was preceded by strong protests by the party’s supporters. Istanbul police took security measures at the building, but this did not stop protesters, including those wearing masks and hurling objects at the riot police. Scenes of chaos at the building also hit Tekin, literally. As he was speaking to reporters outside the building, he dodged a water bottle thrown by the angry crowd.
The CHP claims it is a victim of the government’s plot to undermine the party, but Tekin’s acceptance of the job indicates that it is an internal dispute, as some political pundits say. One side of the conflict is Özgür Özel, the incumbent chair of the party, who took the reins in an election in 2023, just as his namesake, who ran the Istanbul office. On the other side, though not openly voiced by supporters of the party, is Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, predecessor of Özel. Tekin served as Kılıçdaroğlu’s vice chair and is among several names who are branded as dissidents of Özel in the party by the Turkish media. Kılıçdaroğlu maintains his silence on the developments and claims that he is preparing to take over the party’s chairpersonship in the coming weeks, just like his former vice chair did.
On Sept. 15, a court in Ankara is expected to rule in a lawsuit filed by former CHP members against the Özel administration over allegations that he and his close circle conspired to oust Kılıçdaroğlu by bribing delegates close to the latter during the 2023 intraparty election. If the court rules that Özel’s chairpersonship is null and void, it may order the appointment of trustees to the party and Kılıçdaroğlu has earlier signaled that he may take over the party.
The intraparty divide was most evident on Tuesday when Tekin placed a wreath at a monument in Istanbul to mark the anniversary of the CHP. Within minutes of his departure from the site, the wreath with Tekin’s name on it was removed. Around the same hours, Özgür Özel was in Ankara, at Anıtkabir, the mausoleum of the founder of the Republic of Türkiye and the CHP, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. Özel wrote in the memorial book of Anıtkabir that they were defending “the people’s will, justice and freedom in the light of our party’s foundation values, one of the two masterpieces of your excellency.” Özel wrote that his party was under “heavy attacks,” but they would defend “democratic rivalry and the multiparty system” in Türkiye, conveniently ignoring his party’s past attempts to delay the transition to a multiparty system. Özel later traveled to Istanbul and attended a separate ceremony at the very place Tekin remembered the anniversary of the CHP, a bizarre scene pointing out the dissent.
Although Özel portrayed their efforts to keep the party intact as a struggle for democracy, his remarks to the Financial Times published on Sunday indicated otherwise. He threatened to launch mass protests that would “bring life to a standstill” if the government pushed for a “coup” against his leadership. He tried this in the past after the CHP mayor for Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoğlu, was arrested in March on charges of corruption, and to a degree, managed to fuel violent riots by CHP supporters in the city under the guise of anti-government protests.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday warned that the escalating power struggle within the CHP cannot be allowed to spill into the streets or erode respect for court rulings, stressing that no one in Türkiye is above the law.
“Criticizing court decisions is one thing, but saying ‘I do not recognize them’ is another,” Erdoğan told a news conference after a Cabinet meeting in the capital Ankara.
“To claim that you don’t recognize judicial rulings is an affront to the rule of law. Such irresponsible behavior cannot be tolerated. We will never allow the streets to be thrown into chaos.”
He added that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) would not allow the CHP’s “seat wars” to derail the country’s progress.
“They did nothing but looting and bribery. Now they are answering for it before the judiciary. No matter how much they shout and cry out, they will not be able to prevent justice from being served. No one is beyond the scope of the law,” he said.
The CHP’s call to take to the streets and gather after police set up barricades in areas around its Istanbul headquarters has caused unrest while disrupting the public order, officials said late Sunday.
Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said the court had decided in its ruling on Tuesday to appoint an interim delegation to run the CHP’s Istanbul team and that disregarding that decision amounted to obstruction of justice. The remark came after the CHP chair said the appointment was “null and void” for the party.
“Disregarding court rulings, trying to pour people out onto the streets is openly challenging the law. Nobody is above the law. The state will do what is necessary against any illegal initiative with determination,” Yerlikaya said on X, adding that it would “never allow” public order to be disrupted.
‘In the right place’
Speaking to reporters after the ceremony to mark the CHP’s anniversary in Istanbul, Gürsel Tekin said he was “in the right place” and would not “embarrass anyone.” “I am sorry what happened yesterday. It was not our doing,” Tekin said, referring to riots in and around the CHP’s Istanbul offices after he arrived at the building. “We will not alienate members of the CHP, CHP voters. We will embrace them. I am not upset with the reaction (to my tenure). It is a democratic reaction,” Tekin, who said he would even “brave bullets, let alone the bottles” after dodging the said bottle on Monday. “I am not angry at anyone,” Tekin said.
Although Tekin said he was in the right place, the CHP already found itself another “place” for the Istanbul offices. Defying the appointment of Tekin, the party announced on Monday that it had moved its Istanbul headquarters to another place in the city’s Bahçelievler district formally. However, this relocation will likely be informal as the administration of Özgür Çelik is not currently recognized by the authorities. Media outlets close to the CHP reported on Tuesday that the party would relocate its Istanbul offices daily until its first relocation is identified, a process that may continue for 39 more days, equal to the number of Istanbul’s districts.
Always in opposition
The CHP is the first formally recognized party of the republic, although the Ottoman monarchy had experience with modern-day democracy in the last years of the empire. It started out as a democratic experiment by the founding father, Atatürk, and remained the sole party with a large number of supporters for a while. Though its former members found the opportunity to govern Türkiye at times – most notably Erdal Inönü, son of the CHP’s second chair Ismet Inönü, and Bülent Ecevit, who served as prime minister both in the 1970s and early 2000s – the CHP had never been in a fully functioning government since 1950, except for brief coalition governments it was a part of. Ironically, that was the year that the Democrat Party (DP) won Türkiye’s first genuinely democratic election.
The CHP regards the Sivas Congress, a milestone in Türkiye’s struggle for independence after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, as its first congress. Since then, it has held 59 congresses, including those with intraparty elections. Despite its lengthy history, the CHP had only eight chairs.
The party was shut down after the 1980 coup, like many other parties, and was reopened in 1992. After the AK Party came to power in the early 2000s, the CHP managed to keep its standing in Turkish politics strong while its rivals faded over time. Nevertheless, it failed to run the country amid successive election wins of the AK Party. It came closer to a tangible victory only in the 2024 municipal elections, where it boasted of winning several AK Party strongholds.