CHP’s former and now leader once again in fresh row over meeting with Erdoğan

Duvar English

Former Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on July 23 once again criticized the current leader Özgür Özel over his meetings with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Speaking at a special event in the western İzmir province, Kılıçdaroğlu said, “I don't shake his hand because he calls my party and voters who are not like him terrorists. I don't shake his hand because he sells our citizens for 3 cents. I don't shake his hand and I don't look at his face for Ali İsmail Korkmaz and Berkin Elvan who lost their lives in Gezi Park.”

“I will not look at his face because he prepared fake videos in the presidential election. We will not shake the hand of the person sitting in the palace and we will fight. Democracy never comes with grace, it comes with courageous people,” Kılıçdaroğlu added.

Previously, Özel said it would not fit for the leader of a leading party (of the local elections) to not meet with the President.

Following the CHP’s local election victory at the end of March, Erdoğan and Özel have officially met twice, once at the presidential complex and once at the CHP headquarters. The meetings marked the first such meetings in nearly eight years.

Moreover, they had a brief dialogue at the 50th anniversary of Turkey's operation in Cyprus.

In response to Kılıçdaroğlu, Özel said the former “was never the leader of the leading party.”

On July 24, he said, “The leading party is responsible for Turkey's polarization, for not shaking hands, not speaking with others. On March 31, we became the first party, that's why I said I took the step (to meet with Erdoğan). The CHP is now the ruling party in the eyes of the people. We will do the work befitting the leading party. Mr. Kemal was never the leader of a leading party. He wanted it so much, we worked hard but it didn't happen. If he had been, he would have done what I said. We have never been like Tayyip Erdoğan, who never shook the hand of the second party.”

Following the AKP’s local election defeat in March, Erdoğan signaled for a normalization, or softening, process in politics a few times, but it was not put into practice substantially. Behind the CHP, the AKP became the second party in an election for the first time since its foundation in 2001.

Meanwhile, Kılıçdaroğlu is reportedly preparing to run for the CHP leadership once again.

Following his heavy defeat against Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the May 2023 presidential election, Kılıçdaroğlu also lost the party congress to Özgür Özel in November, which ended his 13-year-long CHP leadership.