Türkiye's Main Opposition Elects Ozgur Ozel as New Leader in Run-up to Local Elections

Türkiye's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu attends a swearing-in ceremony as he is accompanied by Ozgur Ozel at the Turkish parliament in Ankara - REUTERS/Umit Bektas/file photo/
Türkiye's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu attends a swearing-in ceremony as he is accompanied by Ozgur Ozel at the Turkish parliament in Ankara - REUTERS/Umit Bektas/file photo/
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Türkiye's Main Opposition Elects Ozgur Ozel as New Leader in Run-up to Local Elections

Türkiye's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu attends a swearing-in ceremony as he is accompanied by Ozgur Ozel at the Turkish parliament in Ankara - REUTERS/Umit Bektas/file photo/
Türkiye's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu attends a swearing-in ceremony as he is accompanied by Ozgur Ozel at the Turkish parliament in Ankara - REUTERS/Umit Bektas/file photo/

Türkiye's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) on Sunday elected Ozgur Ozel as its new leader, ending a 13-year term for incumbent Kemal Kilicdaroglu, as the country gears up for local elections next March.

Ozel, 49, has been serving as the CHP's deputy parliamentary group chairman since 2015 and has been a lawmaker since 2011. He announced his candidacy in September, after Kilicdaroglu and the CHP's painful defeat to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling political alliance in May presidential and general elections, Reuters reported.

Ozel, a pharmacist by trade, received 812 of 1,366 possible votes at a tense, hours-long party congress in Ankara that took two rounds.

"This is the greatest honor of my life," Ozel said after the results were announced, while thanking Kilicdaroglu for his work at the party. "We are embarking on the road for local election victory," he added.

"We have believed in turning hopelessness into hope, we are hopeful," Ozel said, surrounded by applauding party members and standing alongside Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.

Imamoglu supported Ozel in a push for change at the CHP that has long been bogged down by in-fighting. After winning the 2019 municipal elections in Istanbul and ending Erdogan's years-long hold over the city, Imamoglu was seen as a potential new leader for the party and challenger for the presidency.

However, Kilicdaroglu chose to run himself against Erdogan in the May elections, despite several previous losses. After the vote, he came under fire for refusing to step down as the leader of the CHP, established by modern Türkiye's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.



EU Commission Chief Has 'Severe Pneumonia'

FILE - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addresses a media conference at the end of an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Havana, File)
FILE - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addresses a media conference at the end of an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Havana, File)
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EU Commission Chief Has 'Severe Pneumonia'

FILE - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addresses a media conference at the end of an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Havana, File)
FILE - European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen addresses a media conference at the end of an EU summit in Brussels, Thursday, Dec. 19, 2024. (AP Photo/Omar Havana, File)

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is ill with “severe pneumonia” and has canceled her appointments for the next two weeks, her office announced Friday.

According to The Associated Press, spokesman Stefan De Keersmaeker said her agenda had to be cleared of meetings in Lisbon and in Poland, which has just taken over the EU's rotating presidency of the 27-nation European Union.

“She is dealing with severe pneumonia,” De Keersmaeker said in a statement, giving no further details about her conditions or how she fell ill.

Von der Leyen, 66, only recently started her second five-year stint at the top of the EU's powerful executive office.