The New Party (YP) has dethroned the Republican People’s Party (CHP) from its position as the main opposition, but friction between the two remains high.
The YP, founded by the ousted chair of the CHP, Özgür Özel, and the CHP, now led by the reinstated Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, cannot escape each other as their leaders and top officials continue to trade barbs. Özel and Kılıçdaroğlu manage only a simple handshake on the formal occasions when they bump into each other, but an event on Monday and a revised office layout at Parliament may make even that a difficult challenge.
Kılıçdaroğlu sought the return of Özel’s parliamentary office to the CHP after Özel left the party following chaotic eviction scenes at party headquarters when he was ordered to leave by court verdict in May.
Özel, who launched the YP last month with lawmakers from the CHP, still uses the office designated for party chairs dating back to his time as CHP leader.
Media outlets reported over the weekend that Parliament’s administration decided Özel can keep his office.
YP’s deputy parliamentary group chairs, Ali Mahir Başarır and Murat Emir, will also keep the offices they were previously granted while still serving in the CHP. The CHP, in turn, was allocated the office of Gökhan Günaydın, another deputy group chair of the YP, along with an assembly hall belonging to the YP. Under these new arrangements, the offices of Kılıçdaroğlu and key YP figures will be on the same floor of Parliament, with Kılıçdaroğlu’s office located directly opposite that of Murat Emir.
The CHP leader has so far avoided crossing paths with Özel at Parliament, but an event in the Anatolian heartland on Monday may bring the two together, at least in the same row of seats reserved for opposition politicians. Özel has reportedly confirmed his attendance at the event commemorating Hacı Bektaş Veli, a revered 13th-century Sufi mystic, in the Hacıbektaş district of Nevşehir. Meanwhile, it remains unclear whether Kılıçdaroğlu, a staple at the event for years, will attend.
Hacıbektaş is a stronghold of the CHP, and the shrine of Hacı Bektaş Veli is a sacred location for the country’s Alevi community. Kılıçdaroğlu is an Alevi himself, and the CHP has long attracted a substantial portion of the nation's Alevi electorate. Hacıbektaş is currently run by an independent mayor who volunteered for Kılıçdaroğlu’s 2023 presidential campaign. However, following the CHP leader's defeat in that election and as the divide between Özel and Kılıçdaroğlu grew more visible within the party, Kılıçdaroğlu apparently lost favor in the district. Last June, the municipality removed Kılıçdaroğlu’s name from a local cultural center, and he was not invited to the 2025 events, one year after his controversial speech there in which he implied "betrayal" within the party following his 2023 defeat in the CHP intraparty election.
