CHP Board Expels 48 Members Accused of Serving Rival Wings

ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - Türkiye’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) expelled 48 members and senior officials on Friday, after its High Disciplinary Board approved their removal over accusations that they worked in the interest of rival political wings while still holding CHP membership. The decision removes several well-known leaders and former members of the party’s executive leadership.

The board announced the decision in an official statement following its meeting at party headquarters in Ankara on Oct. 16. In total, it considered 50 dossiers: 49 members had been referred with a request for outright expulsion, and one additional dossier concerned a former Bitlis provincial chair. Forty-eight members were officially expelled, and two were cleared without penalty.

Those expelled include Selin Sayek Böke, İlhan Cihaner, Gül Çiftçi, Yalçın Karatepe, Yankı Bağcıoğlu, Kerim Rota, Sevgi Kılıç, and Serkan Özcan, along with Aylin Nazlıaka, former head of the party’s Women’s Branch. At different times, the group held senior posts on the Party Council (PM) and the Central Executive Board.

The board decided not to impose penalties on two members: Metin Güzelkaya, former head of the CHP’s Bitlis provincial branch, and Ozan Varal, a member of the Party Council.

The main reason the 48 officials and members were referred to the board was the accusation that, while still CHP members, they acted in the interest of other political wings and groups. The party leadership described this as a breach of disciplinary principles and party ethics. CHP officials, including the party’s spokesperson, had previously said that organizing for or aligning with another political entity while remaining a CHP member is an ethical violation and a breach of party discipline regulations.

According to Turkish media reports and CHP disciplinary filings, the expulsions concern members accused of coordinating with, or maintaining allegiance to, former CHP Chairman Özgür Özel’s newly established political organization while holding CHP membership. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu returned as CHP chairman following the party’s internal shifts, and the board operates under that reinstated structure.

The decision comes as Türkiye’s traditional main opposition party passes through a severe period of internal division and legal difficulties. The crisis deepened on July 24, when Özel, who had been removed from the party chairmanship by a court ruling over a lack of legitimacy, resigned from the CHP together with more than 90 other MPs. He immediately submitted an official request to the Interior Ministry to establish the “New Party” (Partiya Nû).

The split made the New Party the second-largest party in the Turkish Parliament with 91 seats, while the CHP fell to fifth place with 44 seats.

Many of the expelled members, including former executive board members, view the disciplinary proceedings as a political purge aimed at silencing opposition factions aligned with the party’s former leadership.