Turkish Opposition Hopeful Touts Plan to Finally Defeat Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a MIKTA meeting (a grouping of Mexico, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Türkiye and Australia) during the G20 Summit in New Delhi, India, 09 September 2023. (EPA)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a MIKTA meeting (a grouping of Mexico, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Türkiye and Australia) during the G20 Summit in New Delhi, India, 09 September 2023. (EPA)
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Turkish Opposition Hopeful Touts Plan to Finally Defeat Erdogan

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a MIKTA meeting (a grouping of Mexico, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Türkiye and Australia) during the G20 Summit in New Delhi, India, 09 September 2023. (EPA)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends a MIKTA meeting (a grouping of Mexico, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Türkiye and Australia) during the G20 Summit in New Delhi, India, 09 September 2023. (EPA)

Ozgur Ozel aims to become leader of Türkiye’s main opposition party this year and break through its historic ceiling of 25% support nationwide to finally defeat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has enjoyed two decades of election victories.

But Ozel, 49, said in an interview that his Republican People's Party (CHP) must first rebuild the trust of its own voters, disillusioned after its latest painful defeat to Erdogan in May presidential and parliamentary elections.

Setting out his plans to challenge veteran CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, Ozel said he would also reach out and address the problems of voters who have hitherto rejected the center-left, secularist party.

"We aim to rebuild the shattered hopes, faith and sense of trust among the 25 million people who voted for us," Ozel told Reuters, two weeks after announcing his bid to challenge Kilicdaroglu for the CHP leadership.

The CHP, established by modern Türkiye’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, has always struggled to reach beyond its secularist grassroots towards conservatives.

"We aim to shatter this 25% invisible glass ceiling. We want to do this by being ourselves and determining our own position," he said, saying he aimed to restore the party's left-wing, social democratic identity.

Berk Esen, associate professor at Sabanci University, said there could be some change in the CHP if Ozel were elected leader, repairing recent damage done to the party, but he was skeptical about the prospects for fundamental transformation.

"The main opposition party is heading towards a very serious breaking point," Esen said. "It is rotting from the inside, and I don't think the staff that has watched that rot for a long time can change it."

The CHP has long been hit by internal disagreements over its leadership and policy direction and the latest election showings have deepened the disputes.

The CHP won 25% of the vote in May's parliamentary election while Erdogan, who has maintained power through his broad appeal to conservative and nationalist voters, comfortably beat Kilicdaroglu in the second round of the presidential vote.

Ozel said the CHP failed to analyze those defeats or set out a road map for March local elections, where it is hoping to retain control of the key Istanbul and Ankara municipalities that it won in 2019 after nearly two decades of AKP control.

A leadership vote will be held at the CHP congress on Nov. 4-5, with Kilicdaroglu and Ozel among five candidates. Kilicdaroglu, 74, has led the party since 2010.

Ozel said electing a new leader was the only way forward.

"If the emotional rupture experienced by the voter is not repaired, the voter may move to the point of staying away from the ballot box or even breaking away from politics."



No Way to Restart Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant at Present, IAEA Chief Says

A view shows the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant from the bank of Kakhovka Reservoir near the town of Nikopol amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, June 16, 2023. (Reuters)
A view shows the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant from the bank of Kakhovka Reservoir near the town of Nikopol amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, June 16, 2023. (Reuters)
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No Way to Restart Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant at Present, IAEA Chief Says

A view shows the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant from the bank of Kakhovka Reservoir near the town of Nikopol amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, June 16, 2023. (Reuters)
A view shows the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant from the bank of Kakhovka Reservoir near the town of Nikopol amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, June 16, 2023. (Reuters)

Conditions for restarting Ukraine's Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant do not exist at present due to a lack of water for cooling and the absence of a stable power supply, the head of the UN's nuclear safety watchdog said on Tuesday.

IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi told Reuters in an interview in Kyiv that water would have to be pumped from the Dnipro River for the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, which is currently shut down, to restart.

The facility, in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region, was occupied by Russia in March 2022, shortly after it launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor.

Grossi said the Russians had "never hidden the fact" that they want to restart the plant, but they would not be able to do so soon.

"We are not in a situation of imminent restart of the plant. Far from that, it would take quite some time before that can be done," Grossi said.

The IAEA chief added that the plant's machinery, which has not been operating for three years, would have to be thoroughly inspected before any restart.

Ukraine has said that an attempt by Russian technicians to restart the plant would be dangerous because they are not certified to operate the Zaporizhzhia plant.

Grossi said Russian nuclear staff were capable of conducting a restart, and that the issue of certification was a political rather than technical one.

Ukraine has also protested at the IAEA's monitoring mission to the plant accessing it via Russian-occupied territory.

Grossi said this was to protect the safety of his staff, and that at present he does not have the necessary guarantees from the Russian side to safely transit IAEA staff through the frontlines to Ukraine-controlled territory, as had been done several times before.