Tanju Özcan, mayor of Ankara’s neighboring city of Bolu and member of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), has completed a 10 day march to the CHP’s headquarters in the Turkish capital. At an event in front of the headquarters yesterday, Özcan called for the resignation of CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, labelling him as a dictator and calling for change within the party. In a dramatic moment during the event, Özcan hurled a plastic chair in the direction of the headquarters’ entrance. Kılıçdaroğlu, CHP leader for 13 years, has faced repeated calls to step down following his loss to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey’s presidential elections in May.
Özcan had begun his march from Bolu, nearly 200 kilometers to Ankara’s northwest, on July 3. Labeled as ‘Change and Justice’, the march aimed to bring change to Turkey’s largest opposition party following their defeat in May’s presidential and parliamentary elections. Following a visit to the mausoleum (Anıtkabir) of Turkey’s founding father Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Özcan and his supporters arrived at the CHP Party headquarters around 17:00 on Wednesday evening, where Özcan proceeded to make remarks.
‘Kılıçdaroğlu is no democrat’
In his remarks, Özcan chastized Kılıçdaroğlu for his alleged dictatorial grip on the party.
“You don’t know Mr. Kemal as well as I do because I’m the only one who has served with him as provincial governor, mayor, and member of parliament. Let me tell you: he is no democrat, he is a dictator at least as much as Erdoğan, you must know that.”
In his 13 years at the helm of the CHP, Kılıçdaroğlu has developed a reputation as electorally unsuccessful, as his tenure has been marked by repeated defeats to Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP). Özcan’s remarks also took aim at Kılıçdaroğlu’s repeated losses, blaming the party chairman for Erdoğan’s newly inaugurated five-year presidential term:
“They’ve lost 11 general elections, local elections and referendums over 13 years. Enough is enough! Because of you, the Turkish nation will have to endure five more years of this government, which has been involved in all kinds of corruption for 21 years and is the servant of the dark, imperial powers. Shame on you, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu!”
Özcan’s mayoral tenure
Since his election as mayor of Bolu in 2019, Tanju Özcan has been no stranger to controversy. In the summer of 2021, Özcan instituted a controversial anti-immigrant policy in Bolu, requiring foreign residents of the city to pay some ten times more for water and basic utilities. The policy was widely seen as targeting the city’s community of Syrian refugees who had settled in Bolu since the outbreak of the Syrian Civil War in 2011. Özcan’s actions earned him rebuke from the CHP and from the Bolu Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office, which launched an investigation against him under allegations of “abuse of power” and “hatred and discrimination”.
Last year, Özcan was temporarily suspended from the CHP for violations of party rules. After his suspension expired on June 13, Özcan voiced his demands for Kılıçdaroğlu’s resignation which were widely broadcast on social media. The outspoken social media posts earned Özcan yet another rebuke from the party, which gave the Bolu mayor a disciplinary warning on June 22 with the goal of removing him from the party. An appeal of the party’s charges against Özcan is currently planned for July 20.
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Calls for change in Turkey’s opposition
Özcan is not alone in his calls for the CHP Chairman’s resignation. Since Kılıçdaroğlu’s loss to President Erdoğan in the runoff round of Turkey’s presidential election on May 28, many in Turkey’s opposition have expressed a desire for a change in party leadership. While stopping short of calling for Kılıçdaroğlu to step down, İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, also a CHP member, has recently called for change in the party. Earlier this month, İmamoğlu launched a website (iktidardegisim.org)with the message: “An invitation for change: we invite you to join in our process of change for Turkey, and change of leadership.” A major ally during Kılıçdaroğlu’s presidential campaign, the relationship between the İstanbul mayor and the party boss have been noticeably chillier since Kılıçdaroğlu’s loss to Erdoğan. İmamoğlu, whose 2019 win in İstanbul shocked Erdoğan and the AKP, had also been billed as a potential presidential candidate to take down the long-tenured strongman. Opting to instead remain as the mayor of Turkey’s largest city, İmamoğlu campaigned relentlessly for Kılıçdaroğlu throughout the spring.
Memleket Party and Muharrem İnce backers have also made up a large portion of Özcan’s supporters. At yesterday’s event in front of the CHP headquarters in Ankara, several Özcan supporters held signs reading “Muharrem Ince was right.” İnce, a former CHP member and the party’s 2018 candidate against Erdoğan, left the party in 2021 and ran as a third-party candidate this year before withdrawing just days before the first round on May 14, after which he refused to throw his support behind Kılıçdaroğlu. İnce’s longtime criticism of Kılıçdaroğlu’s leadership has meant that many of his supporters have backed Özcan in recent weeks.
Özcan’s recent 10 day march from Bolu to Ankara resembles a similar march done by Kılıçdaroğlu several years ago. After a CHP member of parliament was sentenced to 25 years in prison in June 2017, Kılıçdaroğlu led a 420 kilometer ‘March for Justice’ from Istanbul to Ankara, protesting alleged deterioration of Turkey’s justice system.
