Özgür Özel said that he would be a candidate if his Republican People’s Party (CHP) decides to hold an election to replace current leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Though he has hinted earlier about his intent, it was the first time that Özel, a prominent name in Türkiye’s main opposition party, openly joined the race.
Kılıçdaroğlu, who leads the party since 2010, increasingly faces calls to resign after he lost the presidential runoff against incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on May 28. The leader, who gave up his seat in the parliament to challenge Erdoğan, paved the way for Özel to be CHP’s top representative in the parliament following the runoff defeat.
Özel, a veteran lawmaker who now also serves as CHP group chair in the parliament, told Halk TV on Thursday that he was ready “to accept any job so that the party would not suffer any more losses.”
The power struggle in CHP officially took off last week as Istanbul’s ambitious Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu Kılıçdaroğlu and fueled the rumors that he’s gearing up to run in upcoming intra-party elections.
“The people want the leader and administration in CHP to change,” Imamoğlu wrote on Twitter, all but reiterating his call for Kılıçdaroğlu to step down. “The people want this change to be on the axis of generation and vision; they expect a democratic, service-oriented opposition structure, rhetoric and attitude,” he said.
The presidential election defeat was largely attributed to Kılıçdaroğlu’s lack of powerful address and “unsuccessful strategies,” according to his critics. It sparked an outcry among opposition supporters demanding accountability.
The mayor, who has been not-so-covertly working to oust Kılıçdaroğlu since then, was citing 1 million clicks and nearly 100,000 comments and suggestions on a website he launched earlier advertising his “manifesto for change.”
His movement has gathered friction since the runoff, throwing a rift in Türkiye’s biggest opposition party between Kılıçdaroğlu’s cadre and Imamoğlu supporters. In fact, a leaked video last month showed Imamoğlu organizing a secret meeting to discuss ways to replace Kılıçdaroğlu, confirming rumors that the mayor has been mobilizing for a potential coup.
The 74-year-old former bureaucrat has been resolute in keeping his seat despite it all. He suspended numerous heads of the party’s local branches across Türkiye known for their support of Imamoğlu. He assembled his deputies for back-to-back meetings and was said to have banned any talk of the intra-party crisis before the public, threatening to “part ways with anyone who fails to comply.”
In a move attributed to him, all members of his central executive committee walked out in early June. He imposed a ban on Gökhan Günaydın, the party’s parliamentary group deputy chair and a close confidant of Imamoğlu on attendance at the party’s central executive committee. Elsewhere, he has cut off funding to Halk TV, a pro-CHP TV station that now backs the advocates of the “change” campaign.
Still, dissidents retain a majority in the CHP’s party assembly, threatening Kılıçdaroğlu’s iron-fisted rule of the party since 2010, when he replaced Deniz Baykal, a leader who adhered to a more orthodox party policy.
Kılıçdaroğlu has conceded that he was “not a fan” of the top CHP seat and could step down “if a candidate with a clean sheet” emerges – a pointed remark toward Imamoğlu who is tangled in several lawsuits on corruption and insult – but supporters of a change in the powerful party assembly have reached 31, a critical threshold for Kılıçdaroğlu that may pave the way for the “extraordinary congress” Imamoğlu talked about in the leaked video.
Özel said in the Halk TV interview CHP hit “a glass ceiling,” of 25% vote, in general elections and they needed “a leap.” “We need an exit out of this situation,” he stated. “For this, we need a chairperson, whoever can accomplish it. I am ready for duty, I am ready so that the party will not be defeated in the elections again. I don’t want to be a part of a team that gave this defeat to people (supporting CHP),” he said.
He noted that there was “an emotional disconnection” from CHP after the May election defeat and ongoing crisis within the party. “This is horrible. We cannot deny that people are emotionally distant now. You can’t blame the electorate for your defeat. You have to understand them. You have to convince them. They don’t abandon (the party) but they may drive you to change,” he said.
