Politics
Tensions brew between Türkiye’s New Party and CHP it split from
Former members of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) formed the New Party (YP) last week, but tensions between the two parties continue despite YP leader Özgür Özel saying he would no longer “pay attention” to his former party.
Özel, who was ousted as CHP chair in May following a court ruling, kept his promise to return to the “father’s home” for only about two months before launching the YP, which instantly became the main opposition party thanks to the large number of lawmakers who joined from the CHP. Although he has previously emphasized that the YP would adhere to the same “Atatürkist policies” as the CHP, he now appears determined to leave his CHP past behind. Speaking to Sözcü, a newspaper openly supportive of Özel, the YP chair said in remarks published on Monday that he would no longer pay attention to the CHP because it was “run by the appointed.” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, his predecessor as CHP chair, was reinstated in May after a court ruled that the party’s 2023 leadership election, which brought Özel to power, had been marred by vote-buying carried out by Özel’s supporters. Özel told Sözcü that the “losers of two elections united against me,” referring to Kılıçdaroğlu and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which lost several strongholds to the CHP in the 2024 municipal elections.
“We won’t engage with them politically, but we won’t fight them either,” he said, hours after Burhanettin Bulut, who switched from the CHP to the YP, sparked an online dispute with CHP’s Istanbul chair, Gürsel Tekin. Earlier, Tekin had claimed that Bulut used CHP resources to put several journalists on the party’s payroll while responding to allegations by pro-Özel groups that Kılıçdaroğlu had hired extras through a casting agency to “create a crowd” at a party meeting in Istanbul on Saturday. Bulut, in turn, referred to the background of Tekin, “who rose to become a property mogul after working in a teahouse,” in a scathing social media post on Sunday. Tekin then questioned the “$1 million” Bulut was allegedly paid by a CHP-run municipality in southern Türkiye.
The row is expected to continue in the coming days as the CHP stands to lose more members. Media reports say that around 200 CHP mayors across Türkiye are expected to join the YP soon, while 264 former CHP lawmakers pledged their loyalty to the new party in a joint statement on Monday. The YP is also expected to attract more CHP lawmakers in the coming days, potentially increasing its parliamentary group to around 100 members and further diminishing the CHP’s status in Parliament.
Turkish media outlets alleged that large quantities of untreated medical waste collected across Istanbul have been illegally buried instead of being properly sterilized and incinerated by the Republican People’s Party (CHP)-run Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IBB).
The allegations, reported by Yeni Akit and some other media outlets, cited unnamed municipal sources who claim that pathological waste including human tissue, blood samples, laboratory animal remains and other infectious materials was transported from hospitals to unauthorized burial sites rather than being disposed of in accordance with Turkish regulations.
According to the report, medical waste from more than 1,000 collection points across Istanbul is transported to the IBB affiliate, İSTAÇ Medical Waste Sterilization Facility in the Kemerburgaz district, which began operations in 2016. The outlets alleged that the facility has been unable to process the volume of waste generated in the city due to limited treatment capacity and equipment failures.
The report claimed that while the facility is capable of processing about 24 metric tons of waste per day, Istanbul generates between 100 and 200 metric tons of medical waste daily. It alleged that untreated waste was instead loaded onto excavation trucks and buried at undisclosed locations, primarily after dark, to avoid inspections.
It further alleged that the practice had continued for approximately 18 months, resulting in nearly 100,000 metric tons of medical waste being buried.
It was also stated that the buried waste included infectious pathological materials and warned of potential environmental and public health risks if the allegations prove accurate.
In addition, the report alleged that several employees working at the facility had contracted serious infections linked to exposure to untreated medical waste, with some reportedly suffering permanent injuries or dying.
According to the media outlets, employees documented the alleged disposal practices and submitted criminal complaints through Türkiye’s judicial system while also filing reports with the Presidency’s Communication Center (CİMER). Authorities were asked to investigate whether environmental and public health laws had been violated.
The report further alleged that disposal operations were conducted outside normal inspection hours to avoid regulatory oversight.
The Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality and İSTAÇ had not issued an official statement addressing the allegations.
If confirmed, the allegations could raise questions about compliance with Türkiye’s medical waste disposal regulations, which require infectious and pathological waste to be sterilized or incinerated before final disposal in order to protect public health and the environment.
IBB is already embattled with allegations of corruption involving former mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu and municipal bureaucrats. Imamoğlu stands accused of multiple offenses, including bribery, laundering criminal proceeds, fraud against public institutions and organizations, recording personal data, illegally obtaining and disseminating personal data, concealing criminal evidence, obstructing communications, damaging public property, receiving bribes, publicly spreading misleading information, extortion, laundering assets derived from crime, and rigging tenders. Prosecutors are seeking a prison sentence ranging from 828 years and two months to 2,352 years for Imamoğlu over 142 alleged acts. The first hearing was held on Monday, March 9.
Cyprus this week hosts outgoing U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, who will become the first head of the international body to visit the divided island in 16 years. The visit is significant as Greek Cypriots appear to be pushing for a solution to the decades-old division, although it may not be one acceptable to Turkish Cypriots.
Guterres’ first stop on the Mediterranean island will be a laboratory where teams work to identify the remains and determine the whereabouts of people who went missing during past hostilities between the two sides. On Tuesday, he will hold separate talks with Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Tufan Erhürman and Greek Cypriot leader Nikos Christodoulides. He will later meet both leaders together in the island’s buffer zone on Wednesday.
The U.N. chief’s visit aims to encourage both sides to adopt confidence-building measures and find common ground to advance the stalled talks. Ahead of the visit, Guterres’ special envoy, Maria Angela Holguin Cuellar, held talks with Erhürman and was scheduled to meet Christodoulides later on Monday. Cuellar told reporters that her meeting with Erhürman was “fruitful.” She said the main purpose of Guterres’ visit was to continue the U.N.’s good offices mission in Cyprus and help pave the way for the resumption of comprehensive talks between the two sides.
Turkish and Greek Cypriots have failed to achieve any significant progress in resolving the decades-old Cyprus question, as their positions differ sharply. The TRNC advocates a two-state solution based on sovereign equality, while the Greek Cypriot side favors a federal model. Türkiye, one of the island’s guarantor states, supports the TRNC’s position. Ahead of the visit, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan held a phone call with Guterres on Sunday.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that the U.N. chief’s visit will precede a planned conference involving the Turkish and Greek Cypriot sides and the guarantor states – Türkiye, Greece and the United Kingdom – this autumn. The last such meeting was held in New York last year.
The United Nations has led two major initiatives to resolve the Cyprus question over the past two decades. The first was the so-called Annan Plan, named after former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, which was introduced in 2004. Greek Cypriots rejected the plan in a referendum, while Turkish Cypriots approved it. In 2017, the United Nations launched the Crans-Montana process, which sought a federal solution to the dispute. That effort also failed and significantly changed the positions of Türkiye and the Turkish Cypriot side. Ankara and Lefkoşa blamed the Greek Cypriot side for the collapse of the talks and shifted from their previously cautious support for a federal model to a firm stance in favor of the TRNC’s sovereignty. Since taking office in 2024, Cuellar has sought to bridge the gap between the parties through her diplomatic contacts.
Erhürman, who succeeded Ersin Tatar last year, has been viewed as less hardline than his predecessor, but he has repeatedly made it clear that he would oppose any federation proposal that ignores the rights of Turkish Cypriots. He was quoted on Sunday as saying that they were ready for “a new process” following Guterres’ visit. Erhürman also stressed that, as in the past, they would consult with Türkiye before moving forward with any new initiative aimed at resolving the dispute.
Greek Cypriot media outlets have previously reported that the United Nations was working on a settlement plan based on a federal framework, with governance shared by the two sides while granting greater international recognition to the TRNC. Responding to those reports, Ankara, through a statement issued by the Defense Ministry, reiterated that any solution to the Cyprus dispute must be based on recognition of the Turkish Cypriots’ sovereign equality and equal international status.
Özgür Özel launched his New Party (YP) with a heavy dose of symbolism on Friday, but the political future of the former chairperson of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) will possibly be tested two years from now in general elections. Although he has already secured the title of chairperson of the Turkish Parliament’s second-largest party by luring 91 lawmakers to his side, Özel will have to take on the formidable Justice and Development Party (AK Party), which has never lost an election in more than two decades, except for the 2024 municipal vote.
His adventure in Turkish politics may be worthy of a series by a certain streaming service whose logo was partially “borrowed” for the logo of the new party, but people will understandably look forward to seeing how it ends, or fares, in the next election, scheduled for 2028. Özel was a virtual nobody in Turkish politics until 2011, when he was elected as a CHP lawmaker. For a long time, he remained a low-profile politician. The 51-year-old lawmaker steadily climbed the career ladder within the party through his work on parliamentary committees as an outspoken deputy. In 2018, he was elected head of the party’s parliamentary group, a post from which he was demoted again when Kılıçdaroğlu made his comeback last May.
A string of factors with multiple effects will impact the YP’s chances, and the most important among them is the choice of a presidential candidate. Özel rallied supporters around former Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu while he was still leading the CHP and even set up a “presidential candidate office” for the mayor, who was arrested in 2025 on corruption charges. Based on the course of his multiple trials, ranging from municipal corruption to espionage, Imamoğlu is unlikely to leave prison anytime soon. Even if he is acquitted of all charges within two years, he will still be ineligible to run for the top office, as a court previously canceled his university diploma after finding it to be fake.
Another rumored candidate is Mansur Yavaş, the CHP mayor of the capital, Ankara. Yet Yavaş has not left the party, although he has appeared supportive of the new party. Özel specifically mentioned his name in speeches leading up to the establishment of the YP, describing him as a key supporter, while Yavaş merely made a phone call to Özel on Saturday to congratulate him. Yavaş and Imamoğlu are viewed as Özel’s options for persuading disillusioned supporters of other parties, especially conservative and nationalist voters, due to their backgrounds, which are more aligned with those groups than the “social democrats” of the CHP.
This raises more questions: What are the political views of the YP, and how can it convince voters beyond Özel’s die-hard fans to vote for it? Özel himself may be declared the presidential candidate for the next election, as he appears to be adopting a new rhetoric brimming with self-confidence about defeating the AK Party. For Özel, it is just a matter of time, and he is counting on widespread support reflected in opinion polls, which still place his party behind the AK Party. The YP has not yet shed its “CHP” image, as Özel summed up the party’s political views as embracing voters from a wide political spectrum without mentioning any specific features that would distinguish those views from “old-school” CHP ideology. On the contrary, he pledged his commitment to the principles of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the CHP, in his last speech before the party’s inauguration, something the main opposition party has tapped into for years to garner votes from so-called “secular” voters.
Özel knows that he has to adhere to CHP ideology, at least for a while, to keep his current voter base intact. This was evident in his choice of the path taken by Atatürk, the founder of the CHP, more than a century ago as he led the establishment of the Turkish Parliament. Özel visited the tomb of the famed Ankara-based mystic Hacı Bayram-ı Veli, as Atatürk did, and walked to Parliament’s first building. On Saturday, he also visited Atatürk’s mausoleum. Moreover, he made it clear that he chose Friday to formally inaugurate the YP because it was the anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne, which defined the borders of the new Türkiye after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Özel also seeks to cultivate credibility by claiming that his comrades have been subjected to political pressure through a string of trials, including the Imamoğlu trial and the case that cost him his seat in the CHP over allegations of vote-buying in the 2023 intra-party election in Türkiye’s oldest party.
How much these factors will translate into more votes for the YP remains to be seen, especially given Turkish voters’ tendency not to easily change their preference for one party overnight. Political pundits say that the YP may not be very tempting for older CHP voters. A lingering rivalry between the CHP and the YP may eventually play into the hands of the AK Party, as the two parties hope to secure votes from the same voter base, although neither may have enough support on its own to surpass the AK Party. This is especially true as Özel seems intent on not forming an opposition bloc like former CHP Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu did in the 2023 elections, which he lost. Apart from the AK Party, the YP’s closest rivals will be the government’s ally, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) and the Good Party (IP). Other smaller parties, such as the New Welfare Party (YRP) and the Key Party (A Party), which have the potential to be dark horses in the next election, are not expected to join an alliance anyway. An alliance with the DEM Party may boost the YP, but the DEM Party also appears unwilling, especially as it now focuses on the “terror-free Türkiye” initiative launched by the People’s Alliance of the AK Party and the MHP.
The YP also lacks the resources that well-established parties have, including Treasury aid, and forming a nationwide organization (opening new offices, finding new delegates and so on) will be a challenge for Özel.
In conclusion, Özel will have to walk a cautious line to achieve success and burnish his credentials to prove that his party has a chance of defeating the AK Party. So far, he has not offered anything new to voters disillusioned with the government and others, other than “inviting” them to vote for the YP. Not kicking them can be a good start, as YP lawmaker Mustafa Sarıgül demonstrated during a quarrel between supporters and those booing Özgür Özel as he was leaving a mosque after Friday prayers in Ankara.
Türkiye’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan on Sunday held separate phone talks with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Pakistan’s Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir to discuss the ongoing negotiation process between Iran and the United States.
Fidan held separate calls with Al Thani and Munir, according to Turkish diplomatic sources.
A second consecutive night passed without reported U.S. or Iranian strikes after two weeks of sustained bombardment, as Pakistan and Qatar intensified mediation efforts to secure a broader de-escalation between Washington and Tehran.
Donald Trump’s U.N. ambassador said the U.S. president was giving negotiations with Iran “some space,” after two nights passed without strikes on the country.
U.N. ambassador Mike Waltz told “Fox News Sunday” that the United States remained “locked and loaded” for more attacks and that “more assets have gone into the region,” but that Trump is “giving talks some space – he’s giving it a little bit of room.”
Prior to Friday, the U.S. military had announced strikes on Iran for 13 consecutive nights, in the largest rekindling of the war since an April cease-fire.
In June, Washington and Tehran signed a memorandum of understanding that included a cease-fire following Qatari and Pakistani mediation, paving the way for negotiations on a final agreement to end the conflict.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan discussed regional developments with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in a phone call Sunday, focusing on the U.N. chief’s visits to Syria and the island of Cyprus, Turkish diplomatic sources said.
Earlier on Sunday, Fidan discussed Iran-U.S. talks with Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Pakistan’s Army Chief Field Marshal Asim Munir to discuss the ongoing negotiation process between Iran and the United States.
The U.N. will submit a detailed report to the Security Council later this month on Israeli violations in Syria, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Sunday.
Speaking at a news conference in Damascus, Guterres stressed that violations of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are “unacceptable,” urging Israel to comply with the 1974 Disengagement Agreement.
“The atrocities Syria has witnessed have not broken the Syrian people’s resolve to pursue their legitimate aspirations,” he added.
He also warned that U.N. humanitarian assistance currently meets only around 20% of the Syrian people’s needs.
Guterres arrived in Damascus on Saturday for a three-day visit and held talks with President Ahmad al-Sharaa and Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani, during which he reaffirmed the U.N.’s commitment to Syria’s sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity and called on the international community to support the country’s recovery.
Syria’s new authorities, who took power in December 2024, are trying to turn the page after more than 13 years of war, and to reboot the economy and rebuild infrastructure and institutions.
Western countries, including the U.S., have begun lifting economic sanctions on Syria. But investors have remained cautious, as the World Bank has estimated the country’s post-war reconstruction could cost $216 billion.
The U.N. announced Thursday that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will travel to Cyprus to advance the peace process.
“The secretary-general will travel to Cyprus from the 27 to the 29 of July as part of his good officer’s mission and his strong demonstrated commitment to the Cyprus issue,” spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said during a news conference.
Noting that Guterres will meet Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (TRNC) President Tufan Erhurman and Nikos Christodoulides, the Greek Cypriot administration leader, Dujarric said the U.N. chief will also meet “other stakeholders and discuss efforts to advance the peace process and support stability on the island, including through the work of the U.N. peacekeeping mission on the ground there, UNFICYP.”
Syrian President Ahmad al-Sharaa on Sunday praised Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Saudi Arabia for their role in securing the lifting of U.S. sanctions on Syria, highlighting their support for Damascus’ reintegration into the international community.
“His Excellency President Erdogan and Saudi Arabia mediated last year with U.S. President Donald Trump to lift the sanctions on Syria,” al-Sharaa said in an interview with Al Jazeera television.
Last year, Washington issued Syria General License 25 and granted exemptions under the Caesar Act to facilitate investment supporting Syria’s recovery. Trump later signed an executive order lifting U.S. sanctions on Syria.
Ankara continued diplomatic efforts to lift international sanctions on Syria.
Erdoğan has long stressed Türkiye’s commitment to a political solution in Syria that safeguards the country’s territorial integrity and ensures the return of millions of displaced Syrians.
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