“The shadow of this great tree cannot shelter the corrupted and those engaged in sins,” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, former leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) said in a video published on his social media account on Wednesday.
“The great tree” was Türkiye’s oldest party mired with allegations of corruption and extramarital affairs of its high-profile members.
Kılıçdaroğlu’s message was a thinly veiled barb at the current administration which is accused of vote-buying to bring incumbent chair Özgür Özel to power as he succeeded Kılıçdaroğlu in a 2023 intra-party election.
This is the second such message by Kılıçdaroğlu in months, to call CHP “purge the corrupted.”
“This party is entrusted to us and we cannot stain it. The party knows when to purge itself (of corruption),” Kılıçdaroğlu stated.
“Dirty politics destroys morals and eventually, set its sights on this nation’s money. We have to keep the politics clean. This responsibility belongs to members of CHP. This is a great tree that did not bow down to anyone, a party which was closed down, went through the coups but did not submit. CHP does not stray from its path to govern, to instill hope again to people. Some people expect me to remain silent. Hear me now: I don’t negotiate the interests of my nation and party for anything. I defy your defamation and threats. I stand for truth,” Kılıçdaroğlu said.
Kılıçdaroğlu, who replaced Deniz Baykal after the former resigned from his post over a sex tape scandal, ran CHP for 13 years.
A loss to incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the May 2023 elections led to an intraparty election in November 2023. Kılıçdaroğlu’s unsuccessful run against Erdoğan despite the support from other parties, made him a pariah in his own party. Some CHP supporters even accused him of being a stooge of Erdoğan.
The accusations mounted further when Kılıçdaroğlu suggested himself as a trustee if the party was to be closed as the result of the vote-buying trial. “I devoted my life of 70 years to people’s fight for justice. I have nothing to leave behind than my fight for morals,” he said.
The first official reaction to Kılıçdaroğlu’s remarks was by Ali Mahir Başarır, acting group chair of CHP. “CHP is a clean party. That’s why we joined Mr. Kemal in his March for Justice,” he said at a news conference on Wednesday in Ankara, referring to Kılıçdaroğlu’s famous 2017 walk from Ankara to Istanbul to protest the arrest of a CHP lawmaker.
“If he still occupied his seat in CHP, he would march with us when our mayors were arrested,” Başarır said, referring to mayors accused of corruption.
“I believe he calls for cleaning the judiciary,” he added. “All our chairs, our staff are clean,” he countered Kılıçdaroğlu.
