A heated social media post from an independent lawmaker close to Ankara’s mayor, seemingly targeting Istanbul’s mayor, has upped tensions and refreshed claims of infighting in Türkiye’s main opposition, the Republican People’s Party’s (CHP).
Ankara lawmaker Yüksel Arslan, who quit the opposition’s smaller Good Party (IP) after the March 31 local elections, is known for his proximity to Mansur Yavaş, the mayor of Türkiye’s capital and a member of the CHP.
Without giving names, Arslan accused CHP’s Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoğlu of “catering to European capitals to climb political career steps” and disputed his adherence to CHP’s core values, namely secular principles of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the CHP’s first chair and the founder of the modern Turkish republic.
“Someone whose sole concern is his own career and walking the path carved for him can only be called ‘Project Kid,’ not ‘Mustafa Kemal’s soldier,’” Aslan wrote, referring to a slogan perceived by some as a critique of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The slogan came to the fore last month when a group of military academy students chanted it during a traditional sword oath ceremony at their graduation, the motives behind which Erdoğan himself questioned.
Arslan went on to call his nameless target a “political forger who poses with terror groups, ethnic dividers and traitors,” likely referring to Imamoğlu and CHP Chair Özgür Özel’s close ties with the Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party), an informal successor of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP).
The DEM Party is largely accused of serving as the “political face” of the PKK terrorist group, which has led a deadly campaign against the Turkish state since 1984. The party’s backing was essential to Imamoğlu’s victory in the 2019 elections.
Arslan’s criticism, however, failed to generate any support from Yavaş or any other CHP member.
“I would like it known that I don’t approve of Arslan’s remarks and or the statement he released,” Yavaş said Sunday on X. “I advise him to delete this post.”
In response, Arslan, who served as Yavaş’s private secretary between 2019-2023, announced he would resign from his duty as the head of a municipality-run athletic club in Ankara and denied any claims Yavaş knew about his statement beforehand.
“I didn’t mean Imamoğlu (in my post),” he told Turkish media. “But I see that’s how it’s being perceived. I would never want to harm Mr. Yavaş, but it seems I am involuntarily so.”
Since losing last year’s general elections, Türkiye’s oldest party has been suffering a division between supporters of Imamoğlu, Özel and those still loyal to former Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
While Özel, who has denounced any plans to run for president in 2028, is busy sidelining dissidents looking to bring Kılıçdaroğlu back, the CHP’s popular mayors are trying to cultivate support for the next presidential race in what is turning into a tense standoff.
Imamoğlu, who shot to fame when he won the 2019 elections for Istanbul’s mayoral seat in two separate votes, is the frontrunner with strong ambitions for the Turkish presidency.
In the municipal vote earlier this year, he once again defeated the AK Party in Istanbul, something political pundits tied to support among non-CHP voters.
Yavaş, on the other hand, is hesitant to take the reins as he has so far refrained from bold declarations despite pressure from his supporters, but his public jab at Imamoğlu at a party convention earlier this month has sent the rumor mill running again.
Ankara’s mayor made waves in the party when he was initially barred from making a speech at the CHP convention. Though Yavaş was given the floor at the convention where Imamoğlu made a lengthy speech, the mayor pointedly said he was only asked to speak at the last minute. “I wish I could have made a speech like (Imamoğlu),” he famously said at the convention.
The Istanbul mayor’s criticism came a week later as he, in a veiled reference to Yavaş, said it was not the right time for people in the same party to get offended by “stepping on each other’s feet or a terse stare.”
“Whoever makes a fuss about it is not my comrade, period,” Imamoğlu said about “those preoccupied with intraparty issues and exaggerating them.”
He insists the CHP should avoid “people trying to pit us against each other.”
