Ousted Turkish opposition leader Ozel says he will start new party

Turkey's ousted opposition leader Ozgur Ozel said Tuesday that he would form a new political party, two months after a disputed court ruling removed him from his position as leader of the Republican People's Party, or CHP.

Ozel, who led the CHP for nearly three years, made the announcement in a farewell address to lawmakers at the party's weekly parliamentary group meeting. He said Turkey was at a historic crossroads and said that, once procedures were completed, the party he was preparing to establish would become the main opposition force in the Grand National Assembly by a wide margin.

An Ankara court in May ordered Ozel's removal and reinstated his defeated predecessor, Kemal Kilicdaroglu. The court annulled the CHP's November 2023 leadership election over allegations of vote-buying. Critics see the ruling as the latest attempt by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to remove political opponents, and the decision has increased concern about democracy and the rule of law in Turkey.

Ozel is reportedly due to apply to the interior ministry on Monday to establish the new party. He did not give further details, but it is widely expected to be called Yeni Parti, or New Party, and to have a founding council made mainly of lawmakers.

The goal is to become Turkey's second-largest parliamentary party and therefore the main opposition. To do that, the new group would need at least 68 of the CHP's 135 lawmakers. Political insiders told AFP that 83 to 85 CHP lawmakers are expected to join. If that happens, the CHP would have about 50 seats and fall to fourth place, behind the pro-Kurdish opposition DEM party, which has 56 seats.

Ozel later wrote on X that the movement had determined its direction with the nation and that the people would own and drive the path forward.

The CHP won a large local election victory within months of Ozel becoming leader, defeating Erdogan's ruling AKP in many areas. Since then, the party has faced growing pressure. Hundreds of CHP officials have been arrested in investigations into alleged corruption, including Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who was widely seen as one of the few politicians able to challenge Erdogan at the ballot box. The source says 27 CHP mayors are currently behind bars on alleged graft offences.

After Imamoglu's arrest, Ozel helped mobilise Turkey's largest street protests in more than a decade, and the party's poll support rose. Ozel, 51, has appealed to the Supreme Court against the May 21 ruling that ousted him. The appeal was delayed by administrative procedures and reached the court only shortly before its summer recess. Although Ozel had earlier said he would wait for the appeal result, the source says a decision is now unlikely before September and he appears ready to move ahead with the new party.