The court-appointed leadership of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), led by Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, has appointed new provincial party chairs in eight provinces as it continues to reorganize the party following a court ruling that reinstated him as chairman, Turkish Minute reported.
The appointments were announced after a meeting of the party’s Central Executive Board (MYK) on Tuesday. Party spokesperson Müslim Sarı said new provincial chairs had been appointed in Ardahan, Çankırı, Erzincan, Kahramanmaraş, Karabük, Kırklareli, Kilis and Kocaeli.
The MYK also appointed new district chairs in 22 Istanbul districts and named a new head of the party’s youth branch.
The latest appointments bring the number of provincial CHP organizations whose leadership has been replaced by Kılıçdaroğlu’s administration to 66.
According to the party, the provincial organizations in Gümüşhane and Kahramanmaraş had previously resigned en masse and joined the newly established New Party.
Provincial party organizations in Sakarya, Bartın, Mersin, Şanlıurfa, Adıyaman, Elazığ, Bingöl, Bayburt, Van, Siirt, Şırnak and Hatay remain under their existing leadership.
The latest changes come after a court ruling in late July declared the CHP’s November 2023 extraordinary congress “null and void” (“mutlak butlan”), effectively reinstating former chairman Kılıçdaroğlu as party leader. The ruling overturned the leadership election in which Özgür Özel defeated Kılıçdaroğlu, triggering a struggle over control of the party organization.
Following the ruling, Kılıçdaroğlu assumed the party leadership and began replacing provincial and district organizations appointed under Özel’s administration, arguing that the existing structure no longer reflected the party’s legally recognized leadership.
Özel rejected the court’s decision as politically motivated and refused to recognize the legitimacy of the new administration. He and many senior CHP figures subsequently resigned from the CHP and founded the New Party, taking with them a large number of lawmakers, mayors and local party officials, deepening the split within Turkey’s main opposition movement.
