Former members of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) formed the New Party (YP) last week, but tensions between the two parties continue despite YP leader Özgür Özel saying he would no longer "pay attention" to his former party.
Özel, who was ousted as CHP chair in May following a court ruling, kept his promise to return to the "father's home" for only about two months before launching the YP, which instantly became the main opposition party thanks to the large number of lawmakers who joined from the CHP. Although he has previously emphasized that the YP would adhere to the same "Atatürkist policies" as the CHP, he now appears determined to leave his CHP past behind. Speaking to Sözcü, a newspaper openly supportive of Özel, the YP chair said in remarks published on Monday that he would no longer pay attention to the CHP because it was "run by the appointed." Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, his predecessor as CHP chair, was reinstated in May after a court ruled that the party's 2023 leadership election, which brought Özel to power, had been marred by vote-buying carried out by Özel's supporters. Özel told Sözcü that the "losers of two elections united against me," referring to Kılıçdaroğlu and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which lost several strongholds to the CHP in the 2024 municipal elections.
"We won't engage with them politically, but we won't fight them either," he said, hours after Burhanettin Bulut, who switched from the CHP to the YP, sparked an online dispute with CHP's Istanbul chair, Gürsel Tekin. Earlier, Tekin had claimed that Bulut used CHP resources to put several journalists on the party's payroll while responding to allegations by pro-Özel groups that Kılıçdaroğlu had hired extras through a casting agency to "create a crowd" at a party meeting in Istanbul on Saturday. Bulut, in turn, referred to the background of Tekin, "who rose to become a property mogul after working in a teahouse," in a scathing social media post on Sunday. Tekin then questioned the "$1 million" Bulut was allegedly paid by a CHP-run municipality in southern Türkiye.
The row is expected to continue in the coming days as the CHP stands to lose more members. Media reports say that around 200 CHP mayors across Türkiye are expected to join the YP soon, while 264 former CHP lawmakers pledged their loyalty to the new party in a joint statement on Monday. The YP is also expected to attract more CHP lawmakers in the coming days, potentially increasing its parliamentary group to around 100 members and further diminishing the CHP's status in Parliament.
