Former CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu advises his party to quit parliament after removal of district mayor

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Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the previous leader of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), on Oct. 31 called on his party to quit the Parliament after the party’s Esenyurt district mayor was replaced by a trustee mayor in a new undemocratic move.

In a social media statement, Kılıçdaroğlu said, the judiciary and the executive have been “under the command of one man.”

“Supervisory mechanisms have been destroyed. Transparency and accountability were eliminated. Opposition politicians, journalists, intellectuals, students, artists, and anyone who stood against them were intimidated with lawsuits and prison sentences,” he said. 

“They appointed so-called prosecutors who would follow their instructions exactly and carry out all kinds of unlawful acts, and through them they carried out actions that ignored the will of the nation. We are faced with such an immoral structure,” he added.

He once again criticized the current leader Özgür Özel’s normalization attempts with the government and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and said, “There is no negotiation, there is struggle.”

He then called on his party to quit the Parliament and “return to the nation.”

Istanbul’s Esenyurt district mayor from the CHP, Ahmet Özer, was arrested on Oct. 30 on alleged charges of "membership in the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) armed terrorist organization."

The government undemocratically appointed a trustee to replace Özer, in what some called an intimidation move against Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu who is seen as a strong rival to Erdoğan.

Following his remarks, Kılıçdaroğlu was criticized for not doing the same thing, quitting the Parliament, when he was the CHP leader in the face of several undemocratic moves.

CHP leader Özgür Özel denied the move in a rally on Oct. 31, saying it would leave the Parliament to the ruling alliance and pave the way for their new constitution.