CHP spokesperson Sarı said they would put forth every effort in their power to avoid losing the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality (IMM) to the AKP. The statement came at the party’s Gaziantep provincial branch. Müslim Sarı assessed the impact that the expulsion of two IMM council members and the resignation of some members to join the YENİ Party would have on a possible IMM mayoral election.
Sarı emphasized the importance of acting together. He noted that although there were people from whom they differed politically, they needed to act together in elections against the People’s Alliance. Recalling that in the Union of Municipalities election they had supported the YENİ Party’s Ayşe Ünlüce despite having twice as many delegates as the YENİ Party, Sarı said this was a great sacrifice. This was an important sacrifice. However, he said the circles they supported had not sufficiently grasped the importance of this stance.
Sarı drew the line clearly. Saying “We also have a limit to our patience; no one should push it,” Sarı stated that the political affiliation of the two expelled members did not lie with the CHP. He said one of these individuals was the group spokesperson and the other was the deputy group chair. Sarı said that those who had resigned from the CHP had “reunited their bodies with the place where their souls were.”
The possibility of an election came onto the agenda. Sarı noted that if İmamoğlu is sentenced, a mayoral election could be held in Istanbul, and that the gap in the council had narrowed significantly. He said they had shown maximum sacrifice to ensure that the IMM, won with great difficulty, would not be lost to the AKP, but that the other side had not shown the same care. He left the door open to cooperation. Stating that they were ready for cooperation if those who had left wanted to fight together against the AKP, Sarı said that if they said “we will do as we please,” they would pay the political price for it.
Why it matters
The prospect of a mayoral election coming onto the agenda in Istanbul if İmamoğlu is sentenced directly turns the distribution of seats in the council into a power calculation; the gap narrowed by expulsions and resignations sits at the center of this calculation. Sarı’s statement shows the CHP’s effort to keep tensions with the YENİ Party under control in order to preserve this balance. The reminder of the support given to Ayşe Ünlüce despite the delegate advantage in the Union of Municipalities election reveals that this effort is being pursued with an expectation of reciprocity. The fact that the door to cooperation was left open and the warning of a political price appeared in the same speech indicates that solidarity within the opposition has become conditional. The unanswered questions are whether İmamoğlu will be sentenced and how those who left the CHP will respond to the call for cooperation.
Background
IMM is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 20 news stories mentioning this name in the last 90 days; the most recent is dated October 20, 2026.