What challenges await Erdogan’s new rival and Turkey’s new opposition party?
Ousted main opposition leader Ozgur Ozel's bid to challenge Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan depends on surviving a widening legal crackdown and reconciling deep ideological, nationalist and Kurdish divisions within his own coalition.
Turkey’s court-ousted opposition leader, Ozgur Ozel, may have emerged as the defiant face of resistance to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but his path forward is littered with political mines: surviving a widening legal crackdown, holding together an ideologically fractured coalition and building a political party capable of challenging Erdogan.
On Friday, Ozel resigned from the Republican People's Party (CHP) and announced the formation of his Yeni (New) Party after failing to regain control of the main opposition faction.
Along with Ozel, 91 of 135 CHP lawmakers also resigned from the party, effectively making the New Party the second-largest in parliament. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has 277 lawmakers, while the pro-Kurdish DEM Party has 56 seats.
Ozel sought to cast his new party as a broad and inclusive opposition movement capable of bringing together voters from across Turkey’s ideological and ethnic divides.
