Kılıçdaroğlu’s Bold Move: CHP Leader Urges Party to Abandon Parliament Amid Mayor’s Sudden Ouster

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Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the former leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), on October 31 called on his party to leave Parliament after the party’s Esenyurt district mayor was replaced by a trustee mayor in a new undemocratic move.

In a social media statement, Kılıçdaroğlu said, the judiciary and the executive have been “under the command of one man.”

“Oversight mechanisms have been destroyed. Transparency and accountability were removed. Opposition politicians, journalists, intellectuals, students, artists, and anyone who stood against them were intimidated by lawsuits and prison sentences,” he said.

“They appointed so-called prosecutors who would follow their instructions exactly and carry out all kinds of illegal acts, and through them they carried out acts that ignored the will of the nation. We are facing such an immoral structure,” he added.

He once again criticized current leader Özgür Özel’s normalization efforts with the government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and said, “There is no negotiation, there is a fight.”

He then called on his party to leave Parliament and “return to the nation.”

The mayor of Istanbul’s Esenyurt district of the CHP, Ahmet Özer, was arrested on October 30 on alleged charges of “membership in the armed terrorist organization of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The government undemocratically appointed a trustee to replace Özer, in what some called an intimidation move against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu who is seen as a strong opponent of Erdoğan.

Following his comments, Kılıçdaroğlu was criticized for not doing the same, leaving the Senate, when he was CHP leader in the face of several undemocratic moves.

CHP leader Özgür Özel denounced the move at a rally on October 31, saying he would leave the Senedd to the ruling alliance and pave the way for their new constitution.