Turkish opposition İYİ Party seats decrease to 37 after resignations

Duvar English

The number of seats of the right-wing opposition İYİ (Good) Party have decreased to 37 from 43 following successive resignations from the party.

The party's deputy from the northwestern province of Balıkesir, İsmail Ok, became the latest to resign from the party, citing several reasons.

Ok, who was among the founders of the party, slammed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu for visiting municipalities held by the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

In a written statement on Feb. 17, Ok criticized the fact that main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) figures went to see a play based on a book by former HDP co-chair Selahattin Demirtaş.

The İYİ Party was founded by a group of Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) dissidents, hence has a nationalist stance. The HDP, on the other hand, is focused on the Kurdish issue.

While the MHP and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) are allied, the CHP and the İYİ Party also formed an alliance before the 2018 general elections with outside backing from the HDP.

The İYİ Party gained 43 seats in parliament in the June 24, 2018 general elections, which was reduced to 37 with the recent resignations.

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In his statement, Ok said that he was proud of the alliance between the CHP and his party, but was disturbed when İmamoğlu, who is from the CHP, visited HDP municipalities after the Istanbul municipality elections on June 23, 2019.

Ok then went on to accuse one of Turkey's most legendary singers of being a member of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK).

"İmamoğlu visited PKK member Ahmet Kaya's grave in his first trip abroad," Ok said in the statement, adding that he voiced his discomfort from the closeness between the CHP and the HDP, but was left alone in his complaint.

"They [İYİ Party administration] alleged that this was my personal complaint," he also said, while stressing that he won't be a lawmaker in the next term.

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Ok also accused his party of being under foreign influence.

"Those who work in imperialist Soros foundations have been appointed to sensitive positions on the [party] executive board," he said, referring to George Soros, an American billionaire.

Criticizing the party's leader, Meral Akşener, for ignoring "the crisis within the party," Ok said, "Even worse, the chairwoman saw no harm in the appointments of Soros fans to the party's key positions although she knew the situation."

The AKP currently has 290 seats, the CHP has 142, the HDP has 65, the MHP has 49 and the İYİ Party has 37 seats in parliament.