Former CHP Chairman Özel Registers New Party Yeni Parti, 90 Deputies Defect

The former chairman of Turkey's CHP founds a new party, the Yeni Parti. Many MPs are switching sides, and a poll sees it ahead of the ruling AKP.

Publication date: 2026-07-28, 15:31

Özgür Özel (r.) with supporters after submitting an application to register the new party Yeni Parti on July 24, 2026. Photo: Ugur Yildirim/ap

From Istanbul — Wolf Wittenfeld

Over the weekend, the new Yeni Parti of former CHP chairman Özgür Özel got off to a surprisingly successful start. After Özel formally sealed his departure from the CHP on Thursday, the majority of the previous CHP parliamentary group in the Turkish parliament followed suit.

• Of the 132 CHP deputies, 90 left the group and declared their entry into the new party.
• According to well-informed circles, another ten deputies are likely to leave the CHP and join the Yeni Parti.

The party was registered with the Ministry of the Interior on Friday and promptly elected Özgür Özel as its new chairman on Saturday, along with its expanded party executive board. This made it the second strongest party in parliament right from the start, after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's AKP.

Initial polls also show that the Yeni Parti is well received by the population. More than 30 percent of voters say they could imagine voting for the new party — that's more than the AKP can currently muster.

However, it will take weeks or months for the separation from the CHP to be fully completed at all levels and for the new party to establish representations in all 81 provinces. So far, Özgür Özel is calling on CHP mayors who want to switch to the new party to stay with the old party for now. They should not risk losing their mandate.

Legal Challenges and Investigations

Numerous public prosecutor investigations into alleged corruption are underway against CHP politicians. A total of 27 CHP mayors, including Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, are in custody. While İmamoğlu has clearly declared his support for the new party, the public prosecutor's office now apparently does not know in some cases whether to continue pursuing CHP mayors, or whether the person now belongs to the old CHP ranks under former CHP chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu — and thus a potential ally of the government.

In the two most important cities after Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir, a rather opposite trend is currently emerging:

• The CHP mayor of Ankara, Mansur Yavaş, is initially keeping quiet — perhaps in coordination with Özgür Özel, according to rumors.
• The mayor of Izmir, Cemil Tugay, on the other hand, left the CHP more than a week ago.

Government Response and International Support

It is also still unclear how President Erdoğan will react to Özgür Özel's new party foundation. The Ministry of the Interior can accept the new foundation or put so many obstacles in the way of the Yeni Parti that it cannot run in elections. For this case, however, Özel has already announced that preparations have been made for cooperation with already existing small parties, which can be used if necessary.

Furthermore, there is still the risk that Özgür Özel's parliamentary immunity will be lifted in order to indict and detain him. However, the AKP would need its de facto coalition partner MHP for this. And its chairman, Devlet Bahçeli, already personally congratulated Özgür Özel on the party foundation yesterday.

Özel has also gotten off to a good start internationally:

• Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, in his capacity as chairman of the Socialist International, has announced that he will henceforth consider the Yeni Parti as a member.
• SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil has also congratulated Özgür Özel and recognized the Yeni Parti as a partner of the SPD.

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