The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) works hard to erase traces of former chairs and any internal dissent. This year saw the party launching disciplinary action against 284 members, including prominent officials.
Under the leadership of Özgür Özel, who took the reins in the party with a controversial election in November 2023, the CHP shifted its policies and managed to win several key municipalities in a rare election victory in the 2024 local vote. Özel, who faced a trial over alleged vote-buying in the 2023 intraparty election, oversaw a major overhaul of the party, sidelining key figures of the CHP administration who held posts during the lengthy reign of his predecessor, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
Türkiye’s oldest party, which emerged in the formative years of the Republic of Türkiye, long governed unopposed but never won any vote since Türkiye held its first truly democratic elections in 1950. The party boasts “internal democracy,” giving a platform to diverse views according to its supporters. But this changed swiftly with Özel, who is quick to crack down on any dissent through disciplinary mechanisms.
The Özel administration has been particularly ruthless toward members who urge the administration to run its own investigation into alleged corruption at CHP-run municipalities and vote-buying allegations in the 2023 election.
The party’s Higher Disciplinary Board handled 284 cases this year and reportedly ordered the expulsion of more than 100 party members. Among them is Gürsel Tekin, a key figure of the CHP under the Kılıçdaroğlu period, who was recently appointed as trustee to the Istanbul branch of the party, after its former chair was suspended over vote-buying allegations. Barış Yarkadaş, an outspoken journalist who is known for his scathing criticism against the Özel administration, was also expelled from the party. Actor-turned-politician Berhan Şimşek, who attempted to run against Özel in a recent intraparty election, was the latest casualty of CHP’s purge.
The CHP also ousted some 300 heads of district branches and 20 provincial branches, mostly those elected during the Kılıçdaroğlu era, through a lengthy local election schedule. The branch elections were not without controversy, as some CHP supporters complained that the Özel administration pressed on the nomination of controversial candidates with low support and those not backing the candidates faced the threat of expulsion from the party.
The administration’s suppression of dissent emerged in last month’s intraparty election. Özel ran unopposed at the election, something attributed to this suppression, and delegates somehow unanimously accepted changes to the party’s program. None of the 1,385 delegates voted no against the changes. That election also revealed a significant drop in the number of candidates for the party’s ruling assembly over the years. In 2012, 434 people were nominated for the assembly and this number rose to 488 in 2018. In the latest election, only 145 candidates came forward to run for the assembly.
The Özel administration made its first move to weed out dissent following the 2024 municipal elections. It was open about blacklisting what it called “those working against the party during the election campaign.” The administration invited heads of provincial branches to supply names of any members of the party, practically launching a witch hunt. In three months, some 1,819 members of the party faced a review of their loyalty and nearly 400 people were referred to the disciplinary board.
