Its rate may be lower than the football world, but Turkish politics is as busy with transfers as clubs. Since the 2023 general elections added another victory to the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) record, 37 lawmakers resigned from the opposition parties. Fourteen of them joined the AK Party, while its main rival, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), welcomed 14 deputies from other opposition parties. Nine other lawmakers quit their parties and currently serve in Parliament as independents. Overall, the AK Party increased its number of lawmakers to 275, while the CHP increased its number to 138.
The CHP sees resignations and switches to the AK Party as “betrayal,” while the AK Party rarely turned down lawmakers seeking to join it; as its chair, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, pointed out last week, its doors were “always open.”
Statistics show another party kept the doors open, but only for those leaving. The Good Party (IP) lost 15 lawmakers since 2023. It was ahead of the Democracy and Progress (DEVA) Party, which lost seven lawmakers, and the Future Party (GP), which lost six. The DEVA Party and GP were established by former AK Party members, former Finance Minister Ali Babacan and former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, respectively. IP was formed by former members of the government-aligned Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and parted ways with its founding chair, Meral Akşener, after the 2023 election, which spelled disaster for the opposition alliance. The party’s momentum slowed after the 2023 defeat, followed by the party’s decision to leave the Nation Alliance and pursue an independent political line.
The MHP lost three lawmakers, while the CHP and the Democrat Party (DP) each lost two lawmakers. Only one AK Party lawmaker resigned, and the same was true for the New Welfare Party (YRP).
Seven CHP lawmakers joined the AK Party, though not all were original members of the main opposition; instead, they were nominated by the CHP in return for the parties’ support for the 2023 opposition alliance led by then-CHP chair and presidential candidate Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. No AK Party deputies have joined the CHP since 2023.
Most recently, President Erdoğan formally welcomed Isa Mesih Şahin of GP, Irfan Karatutlu of the DEVA Party and Hasan Ufuk Çakır of the CHP, last week at his party’s parliamentary group meeting. GP and the DEVA Party remain on the fringes of the more mainstream CHP, which has the second-highest number of members after the AK Party.
Previously, the AK Party transferred Nebi Hatipoğlu, Seyithan Izsiz, Kürşad Zorlu, Dursun Ataş, Unal Kahraman, Ahmet Ersagun Yücel and Salim Ensarioğlu from IP, Nedim Yamalı, Serap Yazıcı Özbudun and Hasan Ekici from GP and Suat Pamukçu from the YRP.
The CHP, since 2023, transferred Ayşe Sibel Yanıkömeroğlu, Bilal Bilici, Nimet Özdemir, Adnan Beker, Aykut Kaya, Ümit Dikbayır and Ümit Özlale from IP, Selma Aliye Kavaf, Cem Avşar, Evrim Rızvanoğlu, Seda Kaya Ösen from DEVA, Cemal Enginyurt and Salih Uzun from DP and Doğan Demir from GP.
