Turkish opposition leader Ozgur Ozel, seen here in a March 2026 file photo, said on Tuesday he will resign from the main opposition party and form a new one. [Reuters]
Turkey’s opposition leader, Ozgur Ozel, said on Tuesday he will resign from the main opposition party and form a new one, amid a nearly two-year-long legal crackdown on President Tayyip Erdogan’s political opponents.
The move, which was expected, poses the latest challenge for the Republican People’s Party (CHP), which modern Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk had established more than a century ago. Most CHP voters and parliamentarians are expected to follow Ozel to the unnamed new party, after a court in May stripped him of his title as chairman by annulling the CHP’s 2023 congress.
In a fiery speech in parliament, Ozel said the resignation of his team from the CHP did not mean they were succumbing to political pressure, but rather that they were embarking on a new kind of opposition to Erdogan, who has run Turkey for more than two decades.
“Today, we are on the brink of a sad farewell that has become inevitable and whose time has come. However, we would like to share with the people that we carry the hope of a new beginning,” Ozel said to more than 80 CHP lawmakers.
