04.08.2026 12:20
The first open Group Meeting of the New Party, founded under the leadership of Özgür Özel, was held at the Turkish Grand National Assembly. Özel, the party's chairman, said, "We are abandoning the old-generation organizational model based on the delegate system, which confines political parties, and sometimes, with the aim of intra-party power, distances the party from its true goal of power."
Özgür Özel, who assumed the leadership of the main opposition after 91 deputies resigned from CHP to join the New Party, spoke about the resignations within CHP, legal regulations regarding the İmralı Process, and his party's roadmap.
Sharing his party's roadmap, Özel said, "We are abandoning the old-generation organizational model based on the delegate system, which confines political parties, sometimes distances the party from the real goal of power by aiming for intra-party power."
Highlights from Özgür Özel's speech are as follows:
Dear fellow travelers, our esteemed guests who came from all corners of Turkey to honor the Group Meeting. I greet you with love and respect from the first Group Meeting of our New Party, which was established by the mandate of our nation and grew with our nation. We are the cadres who never lost to the Justice and Development Party, which won its first elections, who do not know defeat, who do not get used to defeat, who win, who promise to win, and who are marching towards power.
"THOSE WHO REJECT DEFEAT."
We are the current representatives of the spirit of the National Forces, who rejected controlled opposition, rejected defeat, rejected opposition within the limits drawn for them, and who were therefore the target of a civilian coup but did not give up, did not bow down, did not retreat, and did not surrender.
At our last group meeting in this hall, I explained in detail the judicial coup we were subjected to. You are the closest witnesses, along with our entire nation, to the legal, political, and physical struggle we waged against this coup practice; you are in this struggle, you are the very embodiment of this struggle.
"WE CONSIDERED IT OUR DUTY TO FOUND THE NEW PARTY"
After all these attacks, we had to make a decision. We asked the true owners of sovereignty, our people, our nation, for the direction. In 60 days, we traveled to 22 provinces, held hands with our citizens, talked with them at eye level, listened to them, and received their suggestions and instructions.
To those who were hopeless, who were afraid, who said, "For heaven's sake, don't retreat, don't surrender, don't give in, don't leave us," we said: "Don't worry at all; we will either find a way or open a new way!" When the time came and the nation grasped it and said, "Enough is enough," and when the nation said, "Open a new way now, don't darken my hopes, be my hope, I will walk with you, I will stand by you, I will stand behind you, I will protect you, open a way," we then considered it our duty to open that new way after this instruction.
"WITH THE NATION'S MANDATE."
We founded our New Party on July 24, with the nation's mandate, with the nation's deputies, together with our 91 friends. Now our real duty is to build tomorrow together; to plan and build our common future together. Because we did not found the New Party just to "have a party"; we founded the New Party so that it would come to power and bring the nation to power.
We founded our party because the nation wanted it. The nation said, "Let it be new," and said, "New Party." It named it itself; we named it "New." Now we are also building its budget with their donations. The founding mandate, the name, and the budget of the New Party have all been set and determined by the nation.
Under this lofty roof, I would like to remind you that the history of democracy is the history where the right to budget took flesh and bone, built buildings, entered them, and formed parliaments. Against the approach of one man collecting money as he sees fit and serving as he sees fit; the approach of "We will decide both on the tax to be given and the service to be provided" established the budget, the right to budget, and the pursuit of the taxes paid, in other words, an advanced understanding of democracy.
"FULL RESPONSIBILITY TO THE NATION THAT PROVIDES ITS BUDGET"
Parliaments are fundamentally based on the budget and the right to budget. Wherever there is a structure, if those who establish it determine its budget, monitor it, and audit it, there is democracy, development, and success. As I will explain in detail shortly; in the New Party's future march, there is full responsibility and full accountability to the nation that had it established, named it, and provides its budget.
For all these reasons, the New Party was founded at the base, not the top. It was founded not despite the nation, but together with the nation. The New Party is the party of the new politics that Turkey has longed for. In this party, there is no understanding of "Give us your vote, give us the authority, or become a member and step aside, leave the rest to us." This party was founded by the nation; the sole force that will direct and determine the course of this party is the nation itself.
"A NEW GENERATION OF POLITICS"
The doors of this party are wide open to all democrats who love their homeland and nation and believe in democracy, justice, and our common future. Today's Turkey is not yesterday's Turkey. The political understanding of yesterday is also insufficient for today's Turkey. Our New Party is the party of a new generation of politics. It is not the party of politicians who speak to the nation from above, look down on it, and use condescending language. It is the party of a political movement that listens to the nation, that those promising democracy to the country have started by going out to the streets, neighborhoods, homes, villages, and towns to listen to the people.
"NEW POLITICS IS BUILT ON NEW PRINCIPLES"
And to be able to do all this, we have set as our fundamental principle to first establish and implement in our own home whatever we promise to this country. There is only one condition for being able to promise participation in politics; first, you must ensure participation within your own party. There is only one condition for promising justice to the country; first, you must make justice prevail within your own party, in your own home. Our claim to build a new generation of politics is not merely a promise.
New politics is built with new principles. Today, at this meeting, in the first meeting of the New Party under this roof, we will declare the New Party's political principles to Turkey and the world together. Rest assured, when this march reaches the end you desire or an intermediate stop, when we succeed; when we together defeat a power that came with democracy, cemented its power through democratic means, then gradually rolled back democracy and brought about authoritarianism, and at the end of the day made the whole world ask, "Will free elections ever take place in Turkey again?" – then, inscribing onto the history of world politics this new generation of politics that changed the government in Turkey, our inclusive, fluid organizational model, our transparent, accountable financial situation, and a founding politics in which everyone who comes to the party, from organization to the march for power, can grab and carry one end of this burden, feeling not like a part but the owner – for you, for us, and for me, it will only be a matter of time from then on, a matter of reaching the ballot box.
EXPLAINS THE ORGANIZATION STRATEGY
Dear friends, esteemed nation, dear colleagues. Let us begin with our organizing model. We are taking a step that will radically change the old generation's understanding of organizing. Because democracy is not just going to the ballot box and voting. Democracy is established on solid foundations when citizens feel themselves as the subjects of politics. Perhaps this is what politics has forgotten or made us forget for many years.
We aspire to a politics that draws strength from the differences of our people but succeeds and will succeed in bringing them together in a shared vision of the future. Perhaps from now on, after the New Party, politics will not only be for the New Party and its members, but will also be an irreversible gain for all institutions and all individuals in Turkish politics.
"A PARTY WITH NO SENIOR MEMBERS"
Here is the first step: New Party membership. New Party membership is based on sharing in political decision-making processes, taking responsibility, holding to account, and being accountable. As the New Party, we have developed a new organizing model based on democratic participation and present it to our nation. The essential element of this organizing model is that the New Party has no old-timers; it consists of brand new members, each equal to the other, with no senior members, each as senior as the next, whose words are not behind anyone else's, whose voices are not quieter, whose ambitions are not inferior, and who are all equal to one another.
We are establishing a new organizing model based on neighborhood assemblies in all our neighborhoods where the number of members, population, and resources are suitable. Without exception, in all the districts where we are organized, the basic political body will no longer be the district administration, the district executive board, or the district chair, but the district assemblies formed by you, the members. In all 81 provinces where we are organized, it is essential that provincial assemblies be established, that politics is also established there, discussed there, managed there, conducted from there, spread to the field, and evaluated there.
"WE ARE ABANDONING THE DELEGATE SYSTEM"
The political platform where all segments of society—workers, retirees, farmers, businesspeople, tradespeople, civil society, the academic world, women, and of course the youth—will determine and implement our policies will be our district and provincial assemblies. Our commissions and boards in the district and provincial assemblies will be dynamic structures that, according to the competence, time, and effort each new and existing member can devote, will include them, engage them, support their work, and draw political strength from them, forming the main pillars of the political field.
A new member joining the New Party will not hear "The elections are over, you should wait a bit, let us get to know you, we will give you a task later" but instead will be integrated into a dynamic, fluid, inclusive, and constantly active model that produces politics. The model itself will draw in the new member or the complainer, bring them to its side, and make them one of those who change rather than wait for a change in power, one of those who strive for change. We are abandoning the old generation's organizing form based on the delegate system, which confines political parties and sometimes, through the goal of intra-party power, distances the party from the real goal of power.
HOW WILL THE CHAIRMAN BE ELECTED?
From now on, being a delegate will remain only as a technical duty to fulfill the requirements of the Political Parties Law; in our New Party, every member will directly elect the district chair, the provincial chair, and the party leader! The New Party will change the way politics is conducted in Turkey; it will change the conduct of politics in Turkey. The old generation political understanding that pushes members to the background will end; a new generation politics where members hold the voice, authority, and decision-making power will be established with the New Party. The strength of our party will not come from its leader or its administrators; the strength of our party will come from its organization and especially from each of its members. In our last group meeting, I said that just before a separation whose time had come and for which there was no other option, a party leader election with all members was the last resort, and I received no answer; or I invite those who said "Sir, that's impossible," those who did not see it as possible and therefore only saw opposition to themselves instead of changing the power, to watch the New Party to see how this politics is possible. On July 24th, as 91 deputies, we collectively carried out the technical establishment of our New Party. On the day we were founded, we undertook the duty, authority, and responsibility of being the main opposition party. We rapidly completed the official procedures and technical and legal processes.