ONCE-WINNING OPPOSITION IS FALLING APART
After defeating the AKP in the 2024 local elections, the opposition set its sights on the presidency but the split and rivalry between the CHP and the Yeni Party are now weakening it by the day.
Analysis
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After defeating the AKP in the 2024 local elections, the opposition set its sights on the presidency but the split and rivalry between the CHP and the Yeni Party are now weakening it by the day.
ANKA News Agency, widely regarded as the voice of the CHP-aligned opposition, and its owner Ali Fırat Atabaş have come under renewed scrutiny over the funding they receive from the CHP following the split in the party due to the absolute nullity ruling.
In the CHP, rapidly heading toward a split after the absolute nullity ruling, one of the key questions people are looking to answer is what stance Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş will take.
Despite expectations that early election scenarios would dissolve following the absolute nullity ruling that split the CHP into two, the debate has not ended.
'Neutralize your biggest rival; weaken the CHP by splitting it.' These two phrases sum up the purpose behind all the operations targeting the CHP over the past year, as seen from within the party.
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.
The tail broke off first, and then the fuselage split into three pieces, according to preliminary findings in the C-130 transport plane that crashed in Georgia on Nov. 11, Defense Minister Yaşar Güler said.