Turkey’s interior ministry has dismissed Ilkay Cicek, mayor of the Izmir province town of Menderes on the country’s Aegean coast, the ministry said on August 8.

Cicek is a member of the Republican People’s Party (CHP). On July 24, the CHP lost its standing as the country's main opposition party to New Party (YP), launched by former CHP leader Ozgur Ozel, who split away from the party that he says has been "occupied" by figures convenient to the ruling Erdogan administration.

Ozel was stripped of his place at the helm of the CHP by court order after judges said that there were "irregularities" in the voting that put him in charge. Most of the CHP’s MPs have deserted the party in order to join YP. Critics, however, see Ozel as only remaining at liberty, unlike the thousands of jailed members of his old and new parties, because of smart discourse that does not cross the line.

Currently, the YP chair is under fire from many of his natural voters for supporting a government bill that has provided Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, with the authority to pardon any member of the politico-militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) whenever he wishes. Observers reflect how Turkey’s so-called opposition parties somehow cannot shake the habit of backing the government even amid strong opposition to their actions from the part of the electorate opposed to the ruling regime.

43 detained, based on Ankara mayor’s calculations

On July 11, Mayor of Ankara Mansur Yavas said that the mayor of Cankaya district in the city had become the 39th CHP mayor detained in the waves of judicial operations that have beset the party. Some mayors taken into custody have been released, while one was reinstated.

Since Yavas gave the figure of 39, Izmit (July 20), Uskudar (July 29), Etimesgut (July 30) and Menderes (August 4) have lost their mayors to detention.

It is not only mayors but also many other members of the CHP and YP that are regularly detained, arrested, put on trial or released every single day that goes by, without an exception.

Since the launch of the YP, it has become harder to track the judicial operations targeting the country’s opposition as some CHP members remain loyal to the new CHP management, some remain in the party but oppose the new management and some quit.

Among those who resign, some join the YP, some go independent and some join the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Among the independent lawmakers, there are always rumours that some of them are getting ready to join the AKP or the YP. Others reiterate that they will remain independent.

To summarise, Erdogan has bulldozed and dismantled the main opposition. It lies in many pieces.