The former leader of the “People’s Republicans” is creating a new party

The leader of the Turkish opposition and the former head of the Kemal People’s Republican Party (Turkish: CHP) Ozgur Ozel has announced the establishment of a new party ready to fight for power in Turkey. It is about the new political power that has been received “Nwhich party» (Yeni Partisi) name.

Most likely, the opposition People’s Republican Party (CHP) is no longer considered oppositional and prospective, either in the imagination of Özel or his electorate, after the raiding by Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. In this regard, the opposition led by Ozel decided to take the initiative from the authorities by creating a new political organization.

According to some polls, almost 35% of potential voters are ready to vote for Özel’s new party. The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) now has around 28% support, according to the same polls. Moreover, opposition members of the Turkish parliament are already allegedly joining the new party en masse, creating a real threat to the stability of the positions of AKP and pro-presidential People’s Alliance supporters in the Turkish National Assembly. TVMM). Thus, for now, Ozel’s and the opposition’s calculation is fully justified.

At the moment, the list of founders of the “New Party” includes 95 deputies of the People’s Republican Party (CHP), and only 44 people remain in the CHP. After the raid, it is less inclusive and less electorally representative, and the popularity of the nominal “Kemalites” is melting before the eyes of the voters.

The sources also claim that the current leader of the CHP, 77-year-old Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who lost the presidential election in 2023 (having never won it before), allegedly has the support of only 7 of the party’s 81 local branches.

At the same time, in any situation, according to the court’s decision, he remains the leader of the CHP․ now just the ruins of the once popular Turkish political party founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk himself in 1923, in which the strongest political divide is brewing, the forerunner of civil war or riot.

According to some domestic Turkologists, the story of the phoenix who rose from the ashes and achieved success in the 2024 local elections in the form of the People’s Republic Party has come to an end. That move, backed by force, delegitimized and discredited in the eyes of the general public any further actions of Kılıçdaroğlu and his group, regardless of the pretext. And Özel’s attempts to restore himself legally from May were not successful.

There are opinions that Kılıçdaroğlu, with his own hands, deprived his party of a person thanks to which he was able to succeed in the local elections and even claim success during the regular (or special) parliamentary elections.

Most likely, Özel will seduce the lion’s share of the electorate and will go to the elections already under the banner of the “New Party”, with not zero chances at all, as experts in the Turkish political kitchen believe.. The success of opposition sentiments is facilitated by the year-by-year deepening chaos in the economy, together with inflation, which cannot be hidden either by the success of the military industry, or by the inspiring struggle against external enemies. Moreover, The creation of a “new party” increases the risks of internal political destabilization.

It is noteworthy that the “New Party” started at a rather high speed. Only a day has passed since the announcement, and Ozel’s team has already found and pre-leased the building for the headquarters. Documents, symbols are in the process of preparation.

The party’s new slogan is “We will change the corrupt system of AKP”. According to skeptics, the New Party activist has yet to articulate a sufficiently original political vision designed to expand the electorate among conservatives, the Kurdish population and first-time voters in general.

There are certain signs that Özel is moving towards the leftist, socialist ideas that are quite popular among a part of Turkish society, at least at the level of slogans.

Meanwhile, some analysts missed an interesting detail. To some extent, it has been forgotten that a few months ago, the main figure of the Turkish opposition was not Ozel at all, but Ekrem Imamoglu. While the CHP splits, new parties are formed, and politicians engage in the fascinating process of splitting party structures and winning over supporters, the popular politician around whom the entire opposition campaign was built until recently remains behind bars with no visible chance of returning to active activity. Ozel, however, stated that he will continue to consider Imamoglu as the candidate of the opposition and will strive to achieve his release.

One of the central intrigues is whether the authorities will try to turn supporters of Özel and Imamoglu against each other.. In addition, only time will tell whether the fans of the Silivri prison inmate will give their votes to the leader of the “New Party”, who has yet to win his place in the sun in the confrontation with the state apparatus, big business closely connected to it and media servants.

At the same time, according to some data, President Recep Erdogan’s deteriorating health has intensified the struggle between rival centers of the ruling establishment., including between close relatives for the right of inheritance in a country where, according to the results of the 2018 constitutional referendum, all the power is concentrated in the hands of one person.

There is an assumption that an experienced politician like Erdogan will never voluntarily give up power. early elections would allow him to bypass constitutional norms that prohibit him from holding the office of president for the third time in a row, for which he needs 360 parliamentary votes.

While the AKP has 277 seats, the nationalist Devlet Bahceli has 44 more seats, and here a lot will depend on the People’s Democratic Party, which is conducting a difficult dialogue with the government for possible mitigations on the “Kurdish issue”.

However, it should not be denied that sometimes, especially during the break of historical eras, the most unexpected circumstances appear on the political stage, which happened many times in the history of both “Ottoman” and “new” Turkey after 1923.

External players may try to use domestic political changes for their own benefit, which may have ambiguous consequences for Russian-Turkish relations, especially in the current difficult conditions. According to local Turkologists, a split in the camp of the Turkish opposition is not a bad scenario, which can be used in case of competently structured work.

YURI MAVASHEV

fondsk.ru

Translation by Zhanna Avetisyan

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Director of “Channel 5” Harutyun Harutyunyan wrote:

“The Supreme Court should not enter the court

In 1903, when the Armenian patriarch Khrimyan Hayrik was returning to Armenia from Tiflis, and he had gone to Tiflis to meet with the viceroy of the Caucasus Galitsin, to discuss the sad decision of the tsarist government to confiscate Armenian church and monastic property on June 12, 1903 and was refused, Gyumri people lay down on the train tracks in Alexandropol. the train moves forward. They demanded that the Pope come out and speak to his flock.

Before that, the Russian high-ranking leadership and military command of Alexandropol wanted to honor Khrimyan Hayrik, but received a rude response. The Catholicos told the scepter to convey to them that I do not want to see their faces. And when the train horns sounded after a short stop, the people lay down on the train tracks, demanding Khrimyan Hayrik to come out and meet the people. That day, the Catholicos spent the night in the presbytery of Alexandropol, and there, to the people’s demand, “Father, you should not give away the estates”, the response of the Khrimian Father was heard: “No, my dears, Father will not give away the estates.”

What do I want to say? today is the trial of the Catholicos of All Armenians. If we have any dignity left in us, we should not allow Veh to enter the court. An end to this disgrace must be given.

If Veh entered the court and stood before the court, know that everything is over and it is today.”

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The Catholicos of Cilicia Aram I of the Great House, the Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America criticized and condemned the trial against the Catholicos of All Armenians and high-ranking clergymen.

Catholicos of the Great House of Cilicia Aram I called it “unacceptable and reprehensible” to call Garegin II to the court, who noted that he suggested Garegin II not to appear in court and to send his representative.

“We expressed our deep protest to Garegin Vehapar and even suggested not to appear in court and to send his representative. We appeal to the state officials, as we have often done, to show respect towards our church and His Holiness and to examine the issues within the limits of mutual understanding and propriety, respecting the laws of the state and the internal order and rule of the church,” said the statement of the Catholicos of Cilicia Aram I of the Great House.

The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem condemned “the ongoing legal prosecutions against the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church, its highest authority and high-ranking clergy”. The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem considered today’s court session “a deeply disturbing and unacceptable event in national-ecclesiastical history.”

“The intervention of the state bodies in the internal canonical, administrative and disciplinary matters of the Church contradicts the principle of the autonomy of the Church and creates a dangerous precedent in the state-Church relations,” said the statement released by the Patriarchate.

The Armenian Patriarchate of Jerusalem demanded to stop the prosecution against the Catholicos of All Armenians and the members of the Supreme Spiritual Council.

“The authorities of Armenia are obliged to realize that their attitude towards the Catholicos of All Armenians is not only an internal political issue. We appeal to the relevant bodies of Armenia to respect the religious freedom guaranteed by the Constitution of the Republic of Armenia, the autonomy of the Armenian Apostolic Holy Church, its internal canonical order and the dignity of the republic, and to refrain from such steps that could deepen the national division and cause irreparable damage to the relations between the Armenian Church and the state in Jerusalem. in the statement.

The Eastern Diocese of the Armenian Church of America has also stated that the issues related to church management, discipline and leadership belong to the church’s own canonical order.

The Catholicos of All Armenians will stand before the court today as an accused. The criminal case against him and six bishops and archbishops is in the Armavir court. The Catholicos is accused of obstructing the execution of a judicial act, in a case in which six high-ranking clerics of the church were also accused.

This case concerns Reverend Gevorg, one of the 10 bishops who joined the Prime Minister’s anti-Catholic campaign. The Catholicos deposed him, and the court obliged to restore the clergyman to his post. The Mother See, however, did not restore and excommunicated him, declaring that these matters are not within the domain of the court, this is an interference with the autonomy of the church. The investigator considered this to be obstruction of justice.

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Today will take place the Catholicos of All Armenians H.S.O.T. The first court hearings in the criminal case against Garegin B. Nersisyan and six bishops (archbishops), this case was transferred to the Court of First Instance of Armavir Region and assigned to Judge Hakob Manukyan.

The Catholicos of All Armenians is accused of the act that he, being also the president of the Supreme Spiritual Council, using his official powers, allegedly obstructed the execution of the decision of the Court of General Jurisdiction of Armavir Region (Judge Edgar Hovhannisyan) regarding another judicial act that entered into legal force:

Former director of Yeghishe Charents Literature and Art Museum, writer, literary critic Karo Vardanyan according to the assessment, what is happening is the shame of the Armenian nation.

“Under this government, not only His Holiness, but all of us are already in that “sinner” status. The whole country is guilty that these people are in power, and we accepted them, it’s not enough, they go and elect them for the 3rd time, so how is the guilt? This is already the malignant type of that sin, which is incurable.

We have no excuse, I can imagine the worst of them. The rest is already ahead, long and intense court hearings, to which, I am afraid, this will accustom us, he will start talking about looting and taming his crowd more energetically.” of 168.am Karo Vardanyan said in a conversation with

According to our interlocutor, it should not be expected that the followers of the Apostolic Church should flood the court yard today, because what they were going to do, they should have done months ago, when the government started targeting the Saint.

“There should be not 1,000 or 2,000 people in the courtyard of the court, but a whole nation, as is the case during the organized cases of some figures. Today, Nikol Pashinyan is dragging our faith to the dirty court, our religion is being judged today, this is not the question of His Holiness, this is the question of all of us,” added Karo Vardanyan.

According to him, he is often asked where Armenia is going, especially from the regions, especially the young people who still have to live in this country.

“In Yerevan, we don’t know many people, we don’t know who is standing in front of us in the market or in public transport, but in the regions we almost all know each other. It is ten times harder for conscious people there, they know who they should beware of, who they should stay away from, so as not to betray them.

I always have an answer: find people like you, let’s comfort each other. One day, the end of these will come, I don’t know what ruins will be left of our country, in the end we need a handful of Armenians to be repaired. Today, a conscious Armenian should not succumb to their current and say: what happened, everyone is like that, I will be like that too. This is the worst mentality, I repeat, in the end we need at least a pure-blooded Armenian,” emphasized Karo Vardanyan.

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The court session in the “case” of the Catholicos and 6 bishops lasted about 30 minutes.

“Judge Hakob Manukyan recused himself,” lawyer Marine Farmanyan informed in the court yard.

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On August 7, at 4:00 p.m., H.E. The first session of the preliminary hearings of the criminal case against Catholicos of All Armenians Karekin II and six bishops who are members of the Supreme Spiritual Council.

Opposition political forces are in the court yard.

Member of the Executive Body of the Republican Party of Armenia (RPA), former deputy of the National Assembly Hayk Mamijanyan told reporters that our national shame is happening at this moment.

“The RA court is trying to judge His Holiness. The Catholicos of our Armenian Apostolic Church is in court, what else is there to comment on? Such a thing happened once in history. they strangled the Catholicos during the time of the Soviet authorities. Is Pashinyan preparing for that? There is no politics here, it is national values, national identity. I am sure that there is no Armenian in the world who is at peace with the idea that His Holiness was summoned to court,” he continued, adding that the government hopes to destroy the Armenian Apostolic Church, but it has endured much greater persecution than a group of Nicolaitans and marginals.

“Why is this being done, because the church was the last ditch of our defense and preservation of our identity, when there was not even statehood. And now there are enough parallels, the authorities do not protect and represent the interests of Armenia and want to eliminate the institution that would protect and promote our interests,” Mamijanyan stressed, offering to fight with all non-prohibited means, even if Pashinyan’s government has managed to form the National Assembly.

“In my opinion, this is not going without a street fight,” the RPA figure emphasized.

Details in the video

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United prayer and Catholicos of All Armenians
the patriarchal message in the Miatsnaej Cathedral

On August 7, H.E. After the first court session in the criminal case of Karekin the Second Supreme Patriarch and Catholicos of All Armenians and six bishops who are members of the Supreme Spiritual Council, the Congregation of the Mother See and the faithful people present at the Miatsnaej Cathedral participated in the evening service, at the end of which His Holiness the Patriarch sent his blessing and message to those present.

H.E. GAREGIN B. THE MOST ARMENIAN CATHOLIC

THE SPEECH TO THE FELLOWS GATHERED IN THE MOTHER TEMPLE

Dear believing children of Ours,

Patriarchal We bring our love, blessing and appreciation to you, that after expressing your protest against the unacceptable processes against the Armenian Church in the siege of the court, now, united in the Mother Cathedral, we raised a united prayer to God for our Holy Church and people.

The Armenian Church is the spiritual cradle and sanctity of every Armenian. Our Holy Church is the unshakable fortress of our people’s faith, the guide to God and salvation, and the steadfast guardian of Armenian identity and national-spiritual heritage.

Nowadays, the authorities and government structures are taking steps to damage the authority of the Church, to limit the autonomy and to subjugate the Church to their will, as well as to change the perception of national identity, cherished and sacred symbols and memories in front of temporary political expedients. Indeed, the autonomy of the Church has always been one of the important guarantees of the welfare of the nation and the strengthening of the state.

We regret that our Holy Church and clergy are being persecuted by the authorities. In illegal and fabricated criminal cases, arrests and restrictions of freedom were applied to a number of churchmen, national benefactors and other people who loved the nation and the church. A little while ago, we returned from the first session of the trial initiated against two archbishops and four bishops, members of the Supreme Spiritual Council, with baseless and criminal accusations, which did not take place due to the judge’s resignation.
We are full of faith and determination, dear ones, to protect our just rights guaranteed both by the constitution of our state and the fundamental principles of international law.

With this awareness and responsibility, with love for the nation and our homeland, we will continue our mission, against all difficulties and obstacles, because, as the psalmist says, “God is our hope and strength, and our helper in the severe troubles that have come to us” (Psalm 45:2). Antarakuys, Our trust is in God, and Our service is for our pious world wide people and dear country.

Dear faithful Armenians, in this moment of prayer gathering, with Fatherly love, we bring our appreciation to you and all our church-loving children in Armenia and in the Diaspora, to national and non-governmental organizations, lawyers, scientific, educational, cultural, and political figures, who support the Mother Church and its mission for the benefit of the nation with perseverance and zeal in the current difficult conditions. We must be indomitable and make persistent and long-lasting efforts to stop the injustices in our country, discrimination and intolerance, the spread of hate speech and hatred. We must make persistent and long-lasting efforts so that our homeland and national peace is renewed with brotherhood and solidarity, and truth, legality and justice prevail in our lives, and the centuries-old teachings of the Church are respected. orders and traditions, so as not to offend the pious feelings of believers.

My Patriarch urges all of you to be sober and prudent, not to give in to provocations, insidious schemes, to remain firm in faith and hope, because God brings out good things for his Holy Church and the believing people from all malicious realities and trials. Our faith is also strengthened in tribulations, our constant dedication to God, motherland and the Church, unbroken loyalty to our sacred national-spiritual values ​​is demonstrated. In the face of external and internal threats, let’s strengthen our national unity, make our process fruitful with patriotic and national-interesting deeds and according to the message of the apostle, let’s be strengthened by the Lord and the power of His power (Eph. 6.10):
We believe that our Holy Church, with the mercy of God and the unconditional dedication and love of our people, will overcome these hardships as well and establish new successes on the way of its mission, for the benefit and brightness of the life of all Armenians.
Our gaze is directed to God and Our efforts to the construction of the motherland and the service of our people. May God bless the Armenian state, keep our people calm and peaceful in our homeland and in the diaspora today and always and forever.

Grace, love and peace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you and with everyone. every

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The Holy Armenian Apostolic Church is not just some organization operating in Armenia, but the soul of the nation. Today, Archbishop Nathan Hovhannisyan, director of the department of foreign relations and protocol of the Mother See, joked in a conversation with journalists in the courtyard of the Mother See.

“It is neither the National Health Service nor “Multi Wellness” that they can crush, seize, nationalize, and appoint their manager in a Bolshevik manner. The church is the soul of our nation. The body is the state, the body is the people, the soul is the church,” said the reverend.

Is it possible for the relations between the church and the authorities to be regulated? the reverend does not consider it impossible, if there is repentance on the part of the authorities.

Is the Patriarch ready to forgive after all this? Reverend Nathan noted: the greatest mission of a Christian is to forgive, but forgiveness happens where there is repentance.
“If there is repentance, it is impossible that there is no forgiveness,” said the reverend.

Reverend Nathan also mentioned that none of the bishops who joined the so-called “Reformation Movement” tried to meet with His Holiness during this time. According to him, the clergy who are members of the Supreme Spiritual Council also received invitations to participate in the council sessions, but the invitations remained unanswered. He mentioned that Arman Saroyan (former leader of Masyatsotn Diocese, Bishop Gevorg, ed.) continues to use the accounts of the Mother See.

And how do they feel in the Mother See that Patriarch of Constantinople Sahak Mashalyan did not react in any way to the start of the trial in the “case” of His Holiness and 6 bishops?

“I hope the letter hasn’t arrived yet. “Maybe the mail is not working well,” joked the reverend.

He also responded to the journalist’s question about rumors that the Patriarch of Constantinople is claiming the throne of Catholicos.

“I don’t know what they are claiming when the Catholicos, thank God, is alive and well, and may God give him a long life,” said Reverend Nathan.

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