Türkiye’s Justice and Development Party on Monday dismissed claims that the ruling party was involved in the opposition’s turmoil, saying the Republican People’s Party (CHP) was consumed by an internal power struggle "more chaotic than the Middle East."
“The AK Party is not involved in this incident in any way,” party spokesperson Ömer Çelik told reporters in Ankara. “This is entirely an internal conflict within the CHP.”
His remarks came as the opposition continues to reel from a court decision that annulled CHP’s 2023 congress and reinstated former leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, setting off competing leadership claims and violent clashes during a police-enforced eviction at party headquarters in Ankara.
Çelik accused CHP figures of trying to shift blame outward rather than address their internal divisions.
“When they cannot solve their own problems, they try to drag the AK Party and our president into it,” he said, describing such efforts as an attempt to “cover up political inadequacy.”
Çelik said that recent rhetoric from CHP officials had crossed the boundaries of acceptable political rhetoric.
“We respect political criticism and we respect political protest,” Çelik said. “But when it turns into insults, threats and political bullying, we will never accept it.”
He also condemned the language used against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during protests outside CHP headquarters, calling it unacceptable.
“Our president is our red line,” he said. “No one should think they can cross it without consequences, both legal and political.”
The AK Party spokesperson added that the ruling party would not be drawn into the CHP’s internal dispute, insisting that the crisis originated entirely within the opposition.
“These claims were brought forward by people within the CHP itself,” Çelik said, referring to the allegations that triggered judicial review of the party’s internal elections. “The judiciary acted within its authority. The result is what we are seeing today.”
He added that any attempts to portray the situation as politically engineered were misleading.
“This is not something the AK Party is part of,” he said. “Trying to present it that way is a method used to escape responsibility for their own internal breakdown.”
Çelik also defended Türkiye’s judiciary, rejecting claims that courts were being used to shape political outcomes.
“We have always opposed judicial tutelage and judicial activism,” he said. “Politics must be decided by civilian will. But no one can use that principle to avoid accountability.”
As the CHP leadership dispute deepens between Kılıçdaroğlu and newly ousted chair Özgür Özel, Çelik said the AK Party would continue to respond firmly to what he described as “unfounded accusations,” while remaining outside the party’s internal battle.
“Our stance is clear,” he said. “We are not part of their internal conflict, but we will not remain silent against unjust attacks on our president and our party.”
