As Özel left the party headquarters, T24 reported that chanters outside yelled, “Fallen Kemal,” “Traitor Kemal,” and “Kılıçdaroğlu is the hope of the AKP.”
The CHP’s role in Türkiye
The CHP is a center-left socialist party first established in 1923 by Türkiye’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. A military coup in 1980 closed down several political parties, including the CHP, but after the ban was lifted, the CHP was reopened in 1992.
The CHP, which was unpopular in the 1990s but improved its image in recent years, owing largely to the administrative performance of its affiliated local government officials like Istanbul’s İmamoğlu, has posed a threat to Erdoğan’s AKP after edging it out in local elections in 2024.
İmamoğlu, who was nominated via a primary to be the opposition candidate in the next presidential election, has been imprisoned since March 2025 and is on trial for corruption charges. If convicted, he could receive as much as a 2,000-year prison sentence. İmamoğlu’s arrest sparked widespread protests, which the Erdoğan Administration similarly suppressed.
