Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
A court has ordered the main opposition Chair Özgür Özel to pay damages to Justice Minister Akın Gürlek in a ruling that did little to clarify how many properties the minister actually owns.
The global umbrella of social democratic parties, Socialist International, suspended the CHP under its court-appointed leadership and admitted Özgür Özel's Yeni Party as a full member.
Cemil Tugay has been mayor of the Izmir Metropolitan Municipality since 2024. When he resigned from the CHP, he said he would join the new party Özgür Özel was forming. Özel said similar things. But around the same time, reports surfaced that Tugay’s communications with Özel were breaking down.
Yeni Party Chair Özgür Özel defended his decision to shake hands with Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the CHP chair reinstated by court order, twice in a week, after facing criticism from his voters.
There's a Turkish saying for describing one misfortune piling on another: 'What happened to us didn't even happen to the boiled chicken'. The last three years for opposition leaders Özgür Özel and Ekrem İmamoğlu, and the 'Change Movement' they lead, bring that saying to mind.
Yeni Party Chair Özgür Özel faces a new effort aimed at removing his immunity from prosecution, one that looks more serious than 60 other such applications already filed in parliament.
Following the “absolute nullity” ruling ousting Özgür Özel from the CHP leadership, the expected finally happened: 91 lawmakers led by Özel left the CHP to establish the Yeni Party.
Özgür Özel, who in a historic decision was removed by court order from the party leadership to which he had been elected four times, announced his decision to establish a new party.
Özel finally finds his new party, calls it a shirt of fire, CHP self-divides again, imagining its votes will go higher.
Özgür Özel, ousted as CHP chair by a court ruling, is preparing to set up a new party even as legal threats mount against him and his allies. The party is likely to be called Yeni Party (New Party), Özel said. 'We are working on the name and the logo. The name has started to become clear. There is a generally accepted name, while the logo is still being worked on. For now, let's call it 'Yeni Party.' Until there is a new name, let's say Yeni Party,' Özel told SZC TV. 'The statute and the program are being written. The official step will be taken at the end of July or the beginning of August,' Özel told the channel at parliament ahead of a special session marking the 10th anniversary of the failed coup attempt.
CHP tears itself in two, Özel ponders a new party; Stay till the end, he says, and take it back, hearty; But should the courts not bend, he's got a backup plan: 110 MPs, and himself as the new man.
The rift between court-appointed CHP Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and ousted Chair Özgür Özel deepened this week, even as the two crossed paths at a funeral — while notably failing to appear together at an Ashura gathering the same day.