People march in support of Ozgur Ozel, in Istanbul, Turkey, May 22, 2026. [Francisco Seco/AP Photo]
Turkish opposition leader Ozgur Ozel and 90 other breakaway lawmakers launched a new political party on Friday, seeking to regroup to challenge President Tayyip Erdogan after their former party faced an unprecedented legal crackdown.
They applied to the interior ministry to launch the so-called New Party in protest over a May court ruling that had annulled the Republican People’s Party (CHP) 2023 congress and stripped Ozel of his title as CHP chairman.
The office of the Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals confirmed on Friday afternoon that the New Party was among active political parties in Turkey, its website showed.
New Party emerges as the second-largest behind Erdogan’s ruling conservative AK Party, which has 277 of 600 lawmakers in parliament, but reduced from the secular CHP’s previous total of 135 lawmakers.
