The list of Republican People's Party (CHP) members jockeying for their leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu’s chair is growing as chants for change increase after the opposition’s defeat in Türkiye’s May elections.
“I will not avoid taking on responsibility but I will not hold back from sacrifice either,” Özgür Özel, a deputy chair and a representative from the Manisa province, vowed Sunday in response to queries about his potential bid for Kılıçdaroğlu’s seat.
“I will take a stance as part of the broadest consensus if I must. I will get in touch with anyone I have to listen to and talk to. The CHP should not block anyone’s path,” he said, joining the chorus calling for “accountability” within the party.
His remarks echoed CHP Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu who has been “voluntarily helming” a campaign for change and arguing that “somebody must answer” for the party’s losses in both presidential and parliamentary elections.
Regarding Imamoğlu’s insistence on change, Özel commented: “The party needs all of us. It’s not possible to overlook or negate any of us. Of course, the attitude here shouldn’t harm Kılıçdaroğlu’s respectability. We must all avoid rhetoric that devalues Kılıçdaroğlu.”
The defeat has since sparked anger within the CHP ranks but despite mounting pressure and calls for the resignation of their leader, the party blamed “unfair conditions” for poor performance.
Days after the election results, all members of the central executive committee walked out on Kılıçdaroğlu, who “welcomed” their resignations.
Since then the CHP leader has remained silent save for reiterating that he would remain “on duty.”
The CHP is scheduled to hold an election to choose its next chairperson at its upcoming general assembly later this year and Kılıçdaroğlu will probably be challenged. While he did not openly say it, widespread rumors claim he would run again for the prestigious post.
Until then, he faces surging opposition to his rule, including from his trusted aides.
Imamoğlu, whom Kılıçdaroğlu fondly referred to as “my son” during the election campaign, dropped another hint on Sunday that he might challenge his leadership.
“I will run only for one thing and that is a major change in Türkiye, just as we did in Istanbul,” Imamoğlu told reporters in Istanbul.
Imamoğlu is credited with ending the long-running streak of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in the mayoralty of Türkiye’s most populated city in the 2019 elections.
He was at some point considered among the top contenders against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in May 14 elections. In fact, he was one of two mayors, along with Ankara’s Mansur Yavaş, expected to run against Erdoğan on behalf of the six-party opposition bloc.
Nevertheless, the bloc agreed to nominate Kılıçdaroğlu, who never once won against Erdoğan in the last dozen elections and was criticized for lacking a general flare that would excite voters.
After Kılıçdaroğlu lost the runoff to Erdoğan, Imamoğlu, who traveled across Anatolia to promote Kılıçdaroğlu’s campaign tirelessly, has commented that it was wrong to expect different results by doing the same thing in a thinly veiled reference to Kılıçdaroğlu’s nomination.
“The politics need a new model, a new future. The opposition should analyze its shortcomings. We need to promote the change for the entire opposition,” Imamoğlu said.
“I expect a step for a change in the party. I defend an order not dependent on certain people but on democracy in our country and our party.”
The opposition’s intra-party friction, as well as Kılıçdaroğlu’s claims that “rural votes” secured Erdoğan’s re-election, has also drawn Erdoğan’s ire.
“Nobody can wag their finger at my people over their voting preferences. Nobody can insult our people,” Erdoğan said Sunday at a ceremony commemorating Turkish poet Necip Fazıl Kısakürek.
Referring to the open endorsement Kılıçdaroğlu received from the PKK terror group in his presidential campaign, Erdoğan stressed that Türkiye would not vote for “terrorist groups” and “no lies CHP leader has told to hold on to his seat or to cover up his election defeat can change this fact.”
He slammed the CHP for accusing victims of February’s catastrophic earthquakes of “selling out their votes."
“A man who has lost a dozen elections in the last 13 years blaming the electorate instead of looking inwards is now a subject of psychology, not politics," he added.
At the rate it’s doing politics, so long as it doesn’t amend and change itself and refuse to heed the people, they will never come to power again, Erdoğan declared.
“If they continue collaborating with terrorists, the people will never vote for them,” he said.
Calling on the CHP to “make peace” with his People’s Alliance, the Republic of Türkiye, and the people’s faith and willpower, Erdoğan concluded: “So long as they fail to do so, all moves the CHP will make will remain nothing but window dressing and political tricks.”
