The fragmentation of Turkey's main opposition party could reduce its competitiveness ahead of the 2028 general elections and increase opportunities for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to pursue another term through constitutional or electoral mechanisms. On July 21, the former leader of the center-left Republican People's Party (CHP), Ozgur Ozel, announced he was leaving the party to form an as-yet-unnamed splinter opposition party. Ozel stressed his decision was not meant to undermine the CHP, but rather to give the opposition fresh leadership and mark a "new beginning" to wrest power from Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has ruled since 2002. This comes after an Ankara appeals court on May 21 overturned the results of the CHP's 2023 congress, unseating elected chairman Ozel and reinstating former leader and presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu. The ruling was widely seen as an attempt to further undermine the opposition in the AKP's favor, as...
