The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) achieved significant gains in the last municipal elections, unprecedented in two decades. However, boiling tensions within the party paved the way for mayors to part ways with the party.
Since the 2024 elections, 14 mayors left the party and joined the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). This number is expected to rise to 15 when Burcu Köksal, the CHP mayor for the western city of Afyonkarahisar, joins the party. Neither Köksal nor the AK Party confirmed the switch, but the CHP administration remains assured that Köksal will leave as she did not return the calls from party officials, nor did she accept requests for a meeting when the rumors broke out. AK Party spokesperson Ömer Çelik, meanwhile, on Saturday, told journalists that they may see “who will join the party at the next parliamentary group meeting.”
The CHP is embattled with corruption trials involving its mayors, as well as infighting over an alleged corrupt 2023 election that brought current Chair Özgür Özel to power. Elsewhere, scandals of extramarital affairs rock the party.
The party attempts to portray the resignations as results of “blackmail” by the government to mayors, though mayors parting ways with the CHP had been adamant critics of the party long before they left. Mayors cite pressure on local administrations by the central administration of the party, lack of interest in their demands from the central administration, intolerance toward criticism, especially on corruption scandals, as well as the purge of dissidents within the party.
A report by the Sabah newspaper says Özel was particularly angered over mayors who met the minister of environment, urban planning and climate change and sought assistance to improve municipal services. The report says Özel’s insulting messages to Mesut Özarslan, the mayor of Ankara’s Keçiören district, who recently resigned from the party, also disturbed other mayors. Mehmet Sevigen, former secretary-general of the CHP, told the Sabah newspaper that the party was “not managed well.”
“They are off the course. The central administration acts on its own without listening to anyone else. They cannot call the people guilty of (corruption) guilty. They are stuck between Ankara and Silivri,” he said, referring to the Istanbul district where former Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu, an influential figure in the CHP and future presidential candidate, is imprisoned.
“They have to weed out the guilty. They cannot call out corruption, however. I expect more resignations unless the party sends out the corrupt ones,” he said.
Mustafa Yavuz, one of the dissidents who was expelled from the party, told Sabah that the incidents in Uşak, Antalya and Bolu left an impact on the public. He was referring to cities whose mayors were detained on corruption charges. During the investigation, media reports revealed secret affairs of Uşak and Antalya mayors.
“They resisted for two months before expelling Özkan Yalım. People noticed this,” he said, in reference to the mayor of Uşak, who was caught with a mistress when police raided his hotel room to detain him on charges of corruption. Yavuz claimed that thousands of complaints have been filed with the CHP’s public relations office regarding the mayors. He also claimed that three more mayors were seeking to join the AK Party.
