Power struggle intensifies inside Turkey's main opposition party

The ousted head of Turkey's main opposition party on Tuesday urged lawmakers to resist what he called a bid to eliminate it, while its court-appointed new leader pledged at a rival meeting to "cleanse the party of dirt", deepening an opposition crisis.

A Turkish court last month annulled the Republican People's Party's (CHP) 2023 congress that elected Ozgur Ozel as chairman, citing irregularities. It also reinstated to the post Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the CHP's divisive former leader who lost to President Tayyip Erdogan in the 2023 presidential election.

The court's decision, described by critics as politically motivated, rattled financial markets and fuelled concerns about democracy and the rule of law in Turkey.

The opposition's challenges could boost Erdogan's prospects of extending his more than two-decade rule of NATO-member Turkey in an election scheduled to be held by 2028, but which analysts say could come earlier if the government seeks to take advantage of the CHP strife. 

Both CHP leaders had said they would address its weekly party meeting in parliament and lawmakers backing Ozel gathered there several hours beforehand. However, Kilicdaroglu then announced a new meeting to be held at party headquarters after popular Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas - seen as a potential presidential candidate for the opposition - called on him "to act with common sense".

"The point is not to give up, not to surrender, but to resist,” Ozel told CHP lawmakers in a speech that drew loud applause. He said they were paying a price for the sake of Turkish democracy.

"What this is about is eliminating the CHP entirely -- along with its candidate and leadership -- and sustaining Erdogan's rule," he added.

NEW LEADER SAYS HE WILL TACKLE CORRUPTION 

Speaking at the party's HQ in Ankara after Ozel had finished his speech in Turkey's parliament nearby, Kilicdaroglu said he would remove those involved in any wrongdoing from the CHP.

"I will cleanse the party of dirt," he told hundreds of supporters at CHP headquarters. "Those who buy the will of delegates cannot exist in this party — and they will not."

Kilicdaroglu's return and recent criticism of the party have enraged his detractors. 

The meeting could mark one of Ozel and his elected team's last efforts to maintain control of the secular, centrist CHP, the party of modern Turkey's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

The CHP, running roughly even with Erdogan's Islamic-rooted and conservative ruling AK Party in opinion polls, has also faced an unprecedented judicial crackdown since 2024, in which hundreds of members and elected officials have been detained as part of corruption charges that the party denies.

Kilicdaroglu has said he would purge the party of corruption, referring to cases involving CHP-run municipalities. The ousted leadership denies the graft allegations, saying they amount to a politically motivated and anti-democratic "coup".

The government rejects the charge, saying Turkish courts are independent.

The CHP has 138 deputies in the 600-seat assembly and around two-thirds of them voted after the court ruling to make Ozel head of its parliamentary group. 

Cavit Soydas, a CHP voter in the northeast village of Tekke, said on Sunday that Ozel "should fight through every possible legal means" to hang on to the party but if that fails "we are ready to go under the name of another party".