The Turkish opposition’s former leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is determined to continue active politics despite a rough ouster from the Republican People's Party (CHP) after losing a key presidential race last year. “I don’t have the luxury to quit politics; I will continue producing solutions for our country’s problems,” Kılıçdaroğlu told a local news platform on Sunday. Kılıçdaroğlu, who lost to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the 2023 presidential election, was unseated from CHP chairmanship in a hurried intra-party election last November and replaced by Özgür Özel, who broke the CHP’s historic ceiling of 25% nationwide support in the March 31 local elections.
However, power struggles have since plagued Türkiye’s oldest political party, with remaining Kılıçdaroğlu supporters forming an increasingly divisive front against Özel and another faction emerging on behalf of the CHP’s popular mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoğlu, known for presidential ambitions of his own. Many members have quit the party in recent months, criticizing what they called the “imbalance” and “straying from core values” at the secularist party. As infighting rages on, the former CHP leader reasserted his involvement in a challenging declaration earlier this month titled, “I’m still here,” seemingly targeting both Imamoğlu and Özel.
He on the other hand has a significant number of supporters in the CHP congress apparently willing to ral.