Politics
Major split hits CHP as Özel, 90 lawmakers resign to form new party
Ninety lawmakers, led by former Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel, resigned from Türkiye’s main opposition party on Friday, formalizing the biggest split in the party’s recent history and paving the way for the launch of a new political movement.
The resignations came days after Özel announced during his final CHP parliamentary group meeting on Tuesday that he would establish a new political party following a prolonged internal leadership dispute.
Özel signed the founding documents of the new party on Friday, officially initiating the legal process for its establishment.
The new political movement will be called the “New Party” (Yeni Parti). A total of 91 lawmakers who resigned alongside Özel joined the party’s founding board.
The party’s registration documents were scheduled to be submitted to the Interior Ministry later in the day.
Özel also updated the biography on his X account, replacing it with a photo of himself standing on a tractor in the central province of Yozgat alongside the logo of the “New Party,” a portrait of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and the quote, “The peasant is the master of the nation.”
Speaking to reporters outside the First Turkish Grand National Assembly building after Friday prayers at Hacı Bayram Mosque in Ankara, Özel said the party had officially submitted its founding documents and received the registration certificate.
“With our 91 lawmakers, we are now heading to the Anadolu Club, which was established 100 years ago under the instructions of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. There, the Founding Board will hold its first meeting to elect the party chair and other governing bodies,” he said.
“By the end of the day, we will have announced the New Party, its Party Assembly, its chairperson and informed Parliament that our parliamentary group has been established,” he noted.
He added that the New Party would participate in the upcoming budget negotiations as the main opposition “for the first and last time,” pledging that the party would eventually form a government that would deliver prosperity and stability.
On the other hand, the developments will significantly reshape the balance of power in Parliament.
The CHP, which currently holds 135 seats, will drop to 44 after the departure of the 91 lawmakers. As a result, the CHP will lose its status as the main opposition party, while Özel’s New Party will become Parliament’s largest opposition force by seat count.
The seating arrangement in the General Assembly is expected to be reorganized, and the number of parliamentary groups will increase to seven.
The breakaway follows months of internal turmoil within the CHP after Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu returned to the party leadership following a court ruling that invalidated the previous party congress, a decision widely referred to in Turkish political circles as the “absolute nullity” ruling.
CHP spokesperson, Müslim Sarı, told reporters on Wednesday that the new party being established by Özel was no different from the CHP in terms of its policies, pointing to Özel’s recent speech in which he said the new party would adhere to the same principles as the CHP. “If you are going down the same path, why do you need a new party?” he questioned.
“It seems like they are more interested in having a seat in a new party than advancing their policies,” he stressed.
Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Tufan Erhürman said Wednesday that he and Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides failed to reach an agreement on new confidence-building measures during talks aimed at advancing efforts on the divided island.
Erhürman said in a written statement following the hourlong meeting in the U.N.-controlled buffer zone that discussions focused primarily on confidence-building measures and the methodology for moving the process forward.
“During a significant part of the meeting, while we were unable to reach an agreement on new confidence-building measures, we conveyed our views regarding external and internal initiatives that are eroding even the existing trust,” Erhürman noted.
He stressed the importance of creating what U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has described as a favorable climate for progress on the Cyprus issue.
Erhürman said this would require both implementing new confidence-building measures and avoiding steps that could undermine trust between the two sides.
He also said Maria Angela Holguin, the U.N. secretary-general’s personal envoy on Cyprus, would be unable to visit the island before the U.N. General Assembly because of illness.
The Turkish side strictly adheres to a two-state solution based on sovereign equality, as past efforts to reunify the island under a federal model have failed due to the Greek Cypriot administration’s reluctance to share power and resources.
The island has seen an on-and-off peace process in recent years, including a failed 2017 initiative in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, under the auspices of the guarantor countries.
The Greek Cypriot administration joined the European Union in 2004, the same year that Greek Cypriots rejected a U.N. plan to resolve the dispute in a referendum.
Erhürman and Christodoulides are scheduled to meet again in the buffer zone on Sept. 17. The meeting is expected to take place in Holguin’s absence.
Greece’s expanding defense alliances and armament programs have fueled concerns that they may come at odds with neighboring Türkiye, with which it still has a lingering dispute over maritime borders. Although Ankara and Athens appear committed to rapprochement after years of hostilities, Greece’s moves risk angering its neighbor.
The Greek military said on Wednesday that it will soon sign a deal to purchase two Italian multi-purpose FREMM frigates as part of a plan to invest billions of euros in its armed forces. Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis, meanwhile, said on Wednesday that they wanted to prevent crises but admitted that Greece’s recent alliance with Israel had increased tensions with Türkiye.
“There is no danger on the ground. We have all scenarios ready for any tension, ready to respond on the ground,” Gerapetritis told Greece’s SKAI TV.
His remarks followed last week’s statements by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, in which he insisted that Greece had “a right” to extend its maritime borders by 12 nautical miles in the Aegean, a major source of friction with Türkiye, which once vowed to declare war if Greece goes ahead with such a decision.
The agreement with Italy is set to be signed on September 8 in Rome for the so-called Bergamini-class frigates, which are modern warships designed for anti-submarine warfare, air defense and to engage targets at sea and on land. The first frigate will be handed over to the Greek Navy in the first half of 2028, and the second in the first half of 2029, according to the General Staff.
Greek shipyards are also set to participate in the maintenance and adaptation of the vessels, the Defense Ministry said. The purchase is part of Greece’s long-running program to modernize its armed forces, at a cost of more than 25 billion euros ($29.2 billion) by 2030.
In recent years, Greece has ordered four French FDI frigates and also plans to modernize its four MEKO-class frigates.
In parallel, the country is expanding its air and missile defense capabilities. Recent projects include the purchase of the multilayered “Achilles Shield” system, which is set to include Israeli systems from Rafael and Israel Aerospace Industries, as well as additional drones and reconnaissance technology. The agreement with Italy provides for the possibility of acquiring further FREMM frigates in the future, the Greek press reported.
Türkiye, meanwhile, is currently building more than 50 warships simultaneously for both domestic and foreign customers, according to a statement last month by its Naval Forces commander.
The country also plans to inaugurate its locally made aircraft carrier by the end of 2027. The carrier will have a capacity to host 52 aerial vehicles and 2,500 personnel.
Under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s leadership, Türkiye has pursued a rapprochement with Greece after decades of lukewarm diplomatic ties and nearly two decades after the countries came close to an all-out war over their Aegean dispute. Erdoğan and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis have met several times over the past two years, but their warm meetings have done little to change the state of relations over the maritime dispute.
Last week, Erdoğan warned Greece not to arm the Aegean islands in violation of past treaties.
“Greece should know that Türkiye has no intention of grabbing the territory of any other country, but Türkiye also has no intention of allowing anyone to violate its rights. Ignoring international treaties will not benefit anyone. Anyone who interprets Türkiye’s level-headed approach based on common sense as weakness is making a grave mistake. Greece should reverse course and stop arming demilitarized islands. History is a good guide for those who can learn from the past,” Erdoğan told journalists as he was returning from the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Kyrgyzstan.
Under the Achilles Shield deal signed earlier this month, Israel will supply Greece with the David’s Sling and SPYDER systems, as well as the BARAK MX system made by Israel Aerospace Industries, along with MMR multi-mission radars for air surveillance manufactured by IAI unit ELTA Systems.
David’s Sling was used by Israel to intercept Iranian missiles during the war with Iran this year. Greece is the second customer for the system, after Finland. Athens plans to spend about 28 billion euros by 2036 to build the Achilles Shield multilayered anti-ballistic, anti-aircraft and anti-drone system and to buy up to 40 F-35 fighter jets from the U.S.
Türkiye’s third-largest city, Izmir, observed the 104th anniversary of its liberation from occupying Greek forces on Wednesday. Events and parades were held in the Aegean city to celebrate the liberation, while at a more solemn ceremony, locals remembered Hasan Tahsin, a journalist who fired the first shot of resistance against the occupiers.
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also issued a message on the occasion, remembering Gazi Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and “all the other heroes who crowned our National Struggle with victory.”
Izmir’s liberation, during the period following World War I that led to the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, was the last chapter in Türkiye’s National Struggle, which included the War of Independence against an assortment of foreign powers occupying Anatolia. It marked the conclusion of the Great Offensive launched by Atatürk in central Anatolia.
Izmir was invaded by Greek forces on May 15, 1919, four days before Atatürk launched a campaign in which he secretly mobilized the Turkish nation to fight against the occupiers. Encouraged by victory in the Battle of Dumlupınar, where Greek forces fled in retreat from the newly pieced together Turkish army, Atatürk ordered his troops to “advance to the Mediterranean,” a historic order that paved the way for the pursuit of Greek troops through central and western Türkiye.
The army eventually managed to push Greek forces toward the Aegean, giving rise to the expression “pushing the Greeks into the sea.” However, this was not a literal expression, as Greek troops took shelter aboard Allied vessels waiting off the shores of Izmir. In the Greek narrative, the events are known as the Asia Minor Catastrophe.
Türkiye hopes an upcoming disarmament process will contribute to stability in Iraq and pave the way for broader regional peace as the PKK and its affiliates lay down their arms, Turkish Parliament Speaker Numan Kurtulmuş said Tuesday.
Kurtulmuş made the remarks at a joint news conference with Iraqi Parliament Speaker Heybet Halbusi following bilateral and delegation-level talks at the Turkish Parliament in Ankara.
Kurtulmuş said he hoped the disarmament process, expected to begin next month, would help turn Iraq into a region of peace and stability and that the laying down of arms by the PKK and its affiliates would contribute to peace across Syria.
He linked the process to Türkiye’s broader “terror-free Türkiye” and “terror-free region” initiatives, saying countries in the region should strengthen cooperation and overcome divisions that have persisted for more than a century.
“Now, with the terror-free Türkiye process and the terror-free region process, we are bringing our scattered pieces together,” Kurtulmuş noted. “We are uniting.”
He also pointed to what he described as growing momentum in Türkiye-Iraq relations, citing 27 agreements and memorandums signed during President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Iraq in 2024 and additional strategic decisions and agreements reached during Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Zeydi’s visit to Türkiye in July.
Kurtulmuş underlined that the Development Road Project was another key pillar of bilateral and regional cooperation.
The planned transport corridor is intended to strengthen connectivity between Asia and Europe through Iraq and Türkiye while contributing to economic development in both countries and the wider region.
Kurtulmuş said Ankara reiterated its full support for steps needed to advance the project and discussed ways to accelerate its implementation.
He said Türkiye hoped the Development Road would become operational with all its components as soon as possible.
The project, he added, would go beyond economic benefits by connecting communities, cities and cultures under a “win-win” approach.
Türkiye on Tuesday threw its support behind a 12-nation initiative led by the United Kingdom, France and Canada to ban trade and business dealings with illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, calling for broader international action against Israel’s unlawful settlement expansion.
The Foreign Ministry said Ankara welcomed and supported measures taken by the 12 countries targeting commercial ties with illegal settlements.
“Israel’s efforts to eliminate the two-state solution are intensifying by the day,” the ministry said, warning that illegal settlements have evolved into a “systematic policy of occupation” that threatens the existence of a Palestinian state.
The ministry also said violence by illegal Israeli settlers had reached the level of “ethnic cleansing.”
Ankara argued that an adequate international response to Israel’s occupation policies has become essential to achieving a peaceful resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and establishing a just and lasting peace in the region.
Against this backdrop, Türkiye called on other responsible members of the international community to adopt similar measures against illegal settlements.
Türkiye reiterated that it would continue working toward the establishment of an independent and sovereign Palestinian state with territorial integrity, based on the 1967 borders and with occupied East Jerusalem as its capital.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held a series of diplomatic meetings in Ankara on Tuesday, hosting U.S. Ambassador Tom Barrack, U.S. Rep. Daniel Issa and the head of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), according to Foreign Ministry sources.
Fidan met with Barrack, who also serves as the U.S. special envoy for Syria and Iraq, alongside Issa, a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, ministry sources said.
No further details were immediately provided on the agenda or issues discussed during the meeting.
Separately, Fidan received Organization of Turkic States Secretary-General Kubanychbek Omuraliev in Ankara, the ministry said in a statement.
The meetings came as Ankara maintains diplomatic engagement with Washington on regional issues, particularly developments in neighboring Syria and Iraq, while continuing efforts to deepen cooperation among Turkic states.
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