Turkish mayor calls for march in demand of change within opposition party

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - In protest over the continuous defeats in elections by the Republican People’s Party (CHP), the mayor of Turkey’s northwestern Bolu province is set to start a march towards Ankara, located around 200 kilometers away. 

Tanju Ozcan, who was elected as the mayor of Bolu in the 2019 municipal elections in Turkey from the CHP, became critical of the party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu following his defeat in the presidential and parliamentary elections in May. The mayor is now demanding change within the party ranks. 

“I’m starting this march to change Kemal Kilicdaroglu who demoralized our country and our youth with his continuous defeats in the elections,” Ozcan told reporters in a press conference on Sunday. 

“I am walking to change the anti-democratic face of the party,” he added.

Ozcan will start what he calls a “March for Change and Justice” at 1:30 pm local time, on a 200 km walk from Bolu to CHP headquarters in Ankara. In 2017 Kilicdaroglu embarked on a similar march from the capital to Istanbul to protest arrests as a part of the government’s crackdown during the state of emergency following the July 2016 coup attempt.

After losing in the second round of the presidential election to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Kilicdaroglu has faced mounting criticism from within the ranks of his party, blaming him for the string of losses in elections. 

The CHP is the largest opposition party, and oldest political force in modern Turkey.  Ozcan is calling for Istanbul mayor and popular figure Ekrem Imamoglu to become the leader of the party instead. 

In response to the defeat, CHP undertook an overhaul of its leadership which was ultimately criticized as it saw the selection of people close to Kilicdaroglu who vowed to take the party to safety and pave the way towards change. 

The day following the presidential election run-off vote, Imamoglu, who was poised to become vice president had Kilicdaroglu won, posted a video on social media demanding change. “We will no longer do the same things and expect the same results,” he said in the video.

In June, Turkish Erdogan took a swipe at the fractured CHP following the elections, “We saw how those who promised democracy to our nation become dictators overnight when it came to their positions,” he said referring to Kilicdaroglu.

In 2022, Ozcan's membership in the CHP was suspended by the party’s disciplinary committee for a year due to sexist comments directed towards a female member of the municipality board from the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). On June 13, he was reinstated into the party, and nine days later he was referred to disciplinary proceedings for a definitive dismissal from the party, mainly for going against Kilicdaroglu.