One day after Özgür Özel announced his New Party (YP), his predecessor and successor, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, declared that his cleansing operation of Türkiye’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) had been “largely achieved.”
Kılıçdaroğlu was reinstated as chairman of Türkiye’s oldest party last May after a court ruled that Özel had been dubiously elected as party chair in a November 2023 election amid allegations of vote-buying. Although Özel’s supporters branded him a “traitor” for accepting the reinstatement, Kılıçdaroğlu has stressed that he returned to the top post to “purify” the CHP of the corruption with which it had long been associated. The alleged corruption refers both to vote-buying allegations and to the arrests and detentions of a large number of CHP mayors on charges of corruption, money laundering and widespread bribery.
Kılıçdaroğlu spoke in Istanbul on Saturday at an event where the CHP welcomed new members and people who had been expelled from the party under the Özel administration. “We have a party that needed to clean itself, and thankfully, that has largely been achieved,” he said.
Since taking office, Kılıçdaroğlu has replaced most of the top cadres loyal to Özel and sacked the heads of the party’s provincial branches amid confrontations between pro-Özel and pro-Kılıçdaroğlu groups.
“We don’t want politicians who steal here. No genuine member of the CHP can side with corrupt people,” he stressed, noting that his mission has always been to fight corruption since he first took office at the party in 2010.
Meanwhile, the CHP faced accusations from pro-Özel media outlets of hiring extras for Saturday’s event. The Birgün newspaper claimed that the party paid TL 950 ($20) a day to hundreds of people to fill the event and chant slogans in support of Kılıçdaroğlu. The CHP denied the accusations, while party spokesperson Müslim Sarı branded them “immoral accusations” and pledged that the party would take legal action against those responsible.
