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."



Nearly 450,000 Afghans Left Iran since June 1, Says IOM

Afghans in their thousands have streamed over the border from Iran at the Islam Qala border point in Afghanistan's Herat province in recent weeks. Mohsen KARIMI / AFP
Afghans in their thousands have streamed over the border from Iran at the Islam Qala border point in Afghanistan's Herat province in recent weeks. Mohsen KARIMI / AFP
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Nearly 450,000 Afghans Left Iran since June 1, Says IOM

Afghans in their thousands have streamed over the border from Iran at the Islam Qala border point in Afghanistan's Herat province in recent weeks. Mohsen KARIMI / AFP
Afghans in their thousands have streamed over the border from Iran at the Islam Qala border point in Afghanistan's Herat province in recent weeks. Mohsen KARIMI / AFP

Nearly 450,000 Afghans have returned from Iran since the start of June, the UN's refugee agency said on Monday, after Tehran ordered those without documentation to leave by July 6.

The influx comes as the country is already struggling to integrate streams of Afghans who have returned under pressure from traditional migrant and refugee hosts Pakistan and Iran since 2023, said AFP.

The country is facing one of the world's worst humanitarian crises after decades of war.

This year alone, more than 1.4 million people have "returned or been forced to return to Afghanistan", the United Nations refugees agency UNHCR said.

In late May, Iran ordered undocumented Afghans to leave the country by July 6, potentially impacting four million people out of the around six million Afghans Tehran says live in the country.

Numbers of people crossing the border surged from mid-June, with some days seeing around 40,000 people crossing, UN agencies have said.

From June 1 to July 5, 449,218 Afghans returned from Iran, a spokesman for the International Organization for Migration told AFP on Monday, bringing the total this year to 906,326.

Many people crossing reported pressure from authorities or arrest and deportation, as well as losing already limited finances in the rush to leave quickly.

Massive foreign aid cuts have impacted the response to the crisis, with the UN, international non-governmental groups and Taliban officials calling for more funding to support the returnees.

The UN has warned the influx could destabilize the country already grappling with entrenched poverty, unemployment and climate change-related shocks and urged nations not to forcibly return Afghans.

"Forcing or pressuring Afghans to return risks further instability in the region, and onward movement towards Europe," the UN refugees agency UNHCR said in a statement on Friday.

Taliban officials have repeatedly called for Afghans to be given a "dignified" return.

Iranian media regularly reports mass arrests of "illegal" Afghans in various regions.

Iran's deputy interior minister Ali Akbar Pourjamshidian said on Thursday that while Afghans illegally in the country were "respected neighbors and brothers in faith", Iran's "capacities also have limits".

That the ministry's return process "will be implemented gradually", he said on state TV.

Many Afghans travelled to Iran to look for work, sending crucial funds back to their families in Afghanistan.

"If I can find a job here that covers our daily expenses, I'll stay here," returnee Ahmad Mohammadi told AFP on Saturday, as he waited for support in high winds and dust at the IOM-run reception center at the Islam Qala border point in western Herat province.

"But if that's not possible, we'll be forced to go to Iran again, or Pakistan, or some other country."