The leader of the Turkish opposition, Ozgur Ozel, ousted by a court decision, on Wednesday ruled out any idea of leaving the CHP, in the midst of a crisis, to found a new party, urging his comrades to stay, Turkish media reported.
The CHP, Turkey's oldest political party, was seriously shaken by a court ruling on May 21, which canceled the 2023 internal primary that brought Ozel to its head and reinstated its defeated rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
Three days later, riot police forcibly stormed into the CHP headquarters in Ankara, firing tear gas and beating party members before evicting them from the premises, Ozel told AFP on Sunday evening.
Despite the crisis, Ozel worked to quickly quell rumors that he might leave the party to found a new political group, and urged his comrades to remain a member.
"We have no intention of founding a new party," he told reporters after attending prayers in Manisa, near the seaside resort of Izmir, on the first day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, the BirGun newspaper reported.
"Some say 'we should resign', but no one should leave the party or resign. We will resolve this problem," he added, reiterating his calls for a leadership primary "as soon as possible".
"We hope that Kilicdaroglu will not try to lead a party of which he was not democratically elected leader. I have one request to address to him: that the leader be chosen by the decision of our two million members."
Critics denounced the court ruling as the latest blatant attempt to sideline President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's main political rivals ahead of presidential elections scheduled for May 2028.
Pressure on the CHP has intensified since its landslide victory in the 2024 municipal elections over Erdogan's AKP, with more than a dozen of its mayors having since been arrested on charges ranging from corruption to links to terrorism.
The March 2025 arrest and incarceration of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu – the CHP's presidential candidate and Erdogan's most powerful political rival – triggered the worst street unrest in Turkey in more than a decade, with the party leading massive protests that propelled Ozel on the front of the stage.
Since then, the party has been making progress in the polls, while simultaneously facing a series of trials widely perceived as politically motivated.
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