ETIMESGUT VOTE MARKS FIRST CHP-PEOPLE'S ALLIANCE COOPERATION
The first cooperation between members of the CHP and the People's Alliance took place in Ankara's Etimesgut municipal elections.
Analysis
Smart, independent reporting on Turkey's politics, economy and foreign affairs.
The first cooperation between members of the CHP and the People's Alliance took place in Ankara's Etimesgut municipal elections.
Turkey's oldest and main opposition party, the CHP, is now effectively divided in two after a court annulled the party's November 2023 congress and reinstated former chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in place of Özgür Özel. The split became more visible when both camps held rallies simultaneously at 2 p.m. on May 30. Kılıçdaroğlu returned to party headquarters to chants of 'Kılıçdaroğlu, the people's hope' — a stark reversal from just days earlier, when another crowd had branded him a 'traitor' and 'the AKP's hope' on May 24, reacting to the court-ordered change in the party leadership carried out with police support. The first head-to-head show of strength between the two camps laid bare a simple reality: Özel commands greater grassroots support, but Kılıçdaroğlu holds the formal authority to run the party.
A rift has emerged between the two smaller nationalist partners in the People's Alliance, the MHP and the BBP, over talks held with Abdullah Öcalan.