Ninety-one of 135 Republican People’s Party (CHP) MPs have broken away from Turkey’s main opposition party to form the Yeni Parti (New Party), opposition leader Ozgur Ozel announced on July 24.

Ozel, who says the CHP has been “occupied” by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AKP in a “political coup” conducted with the assistance of a regime-loyal weaponised judiciary, said those joining New Party were regrouping to challenge Erdogan and his government. The pressure is now on Ozel and New Party lawmakers to quickly trigger a very strong societal response to its arrival on the political scene as the main anti-Erdogan force and transform into the main vehicle of the wider opposition. Without that, Ozel could find himself struggling as the parliamentary arithmetic now works more strongly in favour of Erdogan.

The office of the Chief Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals confirmed on the ​afternoon of July 24 that New Party was among active political parties in Turkey, Reuters reported.

Speaking ⁠after New Party’s first meeting, held in Ankara, Ozel told media that his party will back jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu as its presidential candidate in the next elections, scheduled for 2028.

Imamoglu "was not elected as the presidential candidate by a single political party, but by more than 15 million people," Ozel said.

"Everything will be great. Let's get going, friends," Imamoglu said in a message ⁠posted on ​his X account, reflecting a slogan Ozel used when initiating New Party.

"Today will be a significant milestone in Turkish political history," Ankara MP Murat Emir, who has left the CHP for New Party, told reporters. "We are leaving an occupied party behind."

The CHP is Turkey’s oldest political party. It was created by the founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, in 1923.

In May, a Turkish court annulled the CHP 2023 party congress that elected Ozel ​as party leader after considering allegations of irregularities. It reinstated Ozel’s predecessor as chairman Kemal ​Kilicdaroglu, who lost to Erdogan in the 2023 presidential election. Ozel has accused Kilicdaroglu of doing the palace’s bidding by accepting a return to the helm of the CHP.

Forty-four MPs remain at CHP, including some Ozel backers whom observers expect to attempt to stop Kilicdaroglu taking unfettered control of what’s left of the party.

In mid-June, IntelliNews reported how analysts were declaring the death of the CHP in the face of prosecutions and other disruptions mounted as part of an attack by the ruling Erdogan administration (see Death of Turkey’s opposition declared by analysts). Ozel has come under fire for becoming the “master of the loud-but-useless protest” (see article here).

On July 15, IntelliNews reported on Imamoglu’s protests that in the face of a mountain of allegations, he has been given barely three minutes per charge to defend himself in court.

Turkish prosecutors, meanwhile, continue to go after critics of Erdogan that they claim have crossed the line. At the start of this month, stand-up comedian Deniz Goktas, whose show depicting Erdogan as a “shy dictator” who has transformed into a dictator “at peace with his own identity” went viral, was detained as he returned from a trip abroad.