The main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) denied the extraordinary congress request by former Chair Özgür Özel but set September as the month to begin the ordinary congress process. Özel hopes to take back his seat with an extraordinary intra-party election after a court ousted him from office over vote-buying allegations in a 2023 intra-party vote. Reinstated Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu resisted the call since he returned to office in May, but his spokesperson, Müslim Sarı, announced the congress on Tuesday evening.
Sarı’s statement came after a meeting of the party’s assembly under the leadership of Kılıçdaroğlu and days after supporters of Özel delivered a petition bearing signatures of hundreds of delegates calling for a congress to the party’s headquarters.
Özel counts on a new election, while the Kılıçdaroğlu administration continues its purge of pro-Özel figures in the party, under the name of “clearing the party of corruption.” On Tuesday, the party announced the removal of chairs of CHP branches in Malatya and Kayseri. The removals and new appointments have incited tensions in the party. Earlier, pro-Özel groups had resisted handing over the administration to a new chair in the western city of Izmir, and similar scenes were repeated late Tuesday in Malatya. Barış Yıldız, removed from the office in Malatya, refused to leave the building for hours. His successor, Hakan Satılmış, notified police and forced his way into the locked building with the aid of a locksmith. Satılmış told reporters that they tried to carry out the transition in a calm manner, but the former administration opposed them.
