Turkey's main opposition party is on the verge of splitting after Ozgur Ozel, the man who has led it since 2023, told a stunned parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday that he is quitting the Republican People's Party, known by its Turkish initials CHP, to start a rival party instead.
A court ruling set the split in motion
The "absolute nullity" decision
The rupture traces back to a ruling roughly two months ago in which a Turkish court declared the CHP's 2023 party congress invalid on procedural grounds, a legal category known in Turkish as "mutlak butlan," or absolute nullity. Because that congress was the one at which Ozel had defeated the party's longtime leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the court's decision effectively restored Kilicdaroglu to the chairmanship. Kilicdaroglu is also said to have asked the speaker of parliament, Numan Kurtulmus, not to recognize Ozel as head of the CHP's parliamentary group.
The CHP is Turkey's oldest political party, founded by Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and long associated with the country's secularist establishment; it has served as the leading opposition to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government for two decades. The court ruling left the party with two rival power centers, as lawmakers and provincial officials loyal to Ozel continued to rally around him despite the legal setback.
Ozel tells lawmakers "we are leaving now"
A farewell speech in parliament
Addressing the CHP group meeting inside the Turkish Grand National Assembly, Ozel said, according to Turkish media, "Some farewells come late, but they land at the right point in the end -- we are leaving now." He said the new party would take its first formal step within days, alongside lawmakers "chosen by my nation," and predicted it would emerge as "the main opposition party, by a clear margin."
Lawmakers in the hall reportedly gave him a standing ovation for much of the speech. Local reports put attendance at the meeting at more than 80 deputies, alongside some 74 provincial party chairs, many of whom have stayed aligned with Ozel rather than Kilicdaroglu since the court ruling.
Resignations follow within hours
Lawmakers and a provincial chair step down
Murat Bakan, a CHP lawmaker from Izmir, announced his resignation shortly after Ozel's speech, saying he would continue "under Ozgur Ozel's leadership in our new party." The provincial chairman of the CHP in Konya, Nejat Turktas, also stepped down, and Turkish outlets named several other deputies, including Mahmut Tanal, Yunus Emre, Hasan Ozturk and Umut Akdogan, as expected to join the new formation.
A banner reading "We will not abandon the republic or the party" was hung at CHP headquarters in Ankara, a sign of how the leadership fight has spilled beyond parliament and into the party's rank and file.
What comes next
A registration date and a fallback plan
Turkish news outlets reported that work on the new party's name, logo, charter and founding board was nearly finished, with a formal application to the interior ministry expected around July 27. If, as expected, roughly 85 CHP deputies resign to join the new party by the start of the following week, it would instantly become the largest opposition bloc in parliament, pushing the CHP itself down the rankings of parliamentary groups.
Reports also described a backup party structure being kept in reserve as a legal safeguard, similar to arrangements other Turkish parties have used to protect themselves against closure cases. Officials from the ruling AK Party mocked the split on social media, while CHP's own leadership had not issued a formal response as of Tuesday.
The dispute caps a leadership battle that has simmered inside the CHP since the court's annulment ruling in May, and its outcome -- whether Ozel's new party can hold together the roughly 85 lawmakers it is counting on -- will help determine the shape of opposition politics in Turkey's parliament for the remainder of the legislative term.
