In this FrontPage Magazine article, Christine Douglass-Williams reports that persecuted Turkish opposition leader Özgür Özel is launching a breakaway party to challenge President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, potentially uniting the opposition and threatening Erdoğan’s hold on power ahead of the 2028 election.
- Özgür Özel, the deposed leader of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), announced he is forming a new political party after a court annulled the congress that had brought him to power.
- Speaking to CHP lawmakers in Ankara, Özel declared, “We are charting a new path… We will leave no one behind on this march to power,” and spoke of the “unwavering hope of a new beginning.”
- Recent polls suggest that Özel’s still-unnamed party would handily defeat Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) if an election were held today.
- The breakaway party could unite Turkey’s fractured opposition, mobilize disgruntled voters, and reshape the political landscape ahead of the 2028 presidential contest.
- Özel previously helped lead the CHP to a resounding victory over the AKP in the 2024 municipal elections, elevating his national profile.
- Erdoğan, who has governed Turkey for more than 23 years, has intensified a legal crackdown on opponents, including the arrest and imprisonment of popular Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu on corruption charges.
- Despite İmamoğlu’s jailing and removal from office, the CHP nominated him as its presidential candidate after a primary in which some 15 million people voted.
- The article portrays both Özel and İmamoğlu as dual threats that Erdoğan views as existential and is likely to continue targeting through prosecution and political pressure.
Read the full story:
https://www.frontpagemag.com/turkey-persecuted-opposition-leader-to-create-breakaway-party-to-challenge-erdogan/
