Özgür Özel stated that a period of civilian coups is being witnessed all around the world. The YENİ Party’s 1st Ordinary Manisa Provincial Congress was held at the Yunusemre Municipality’s Ferdi Zeyrek Millet Çarşısı with the participation of Chairman Özgür Özel. Acting Provincial Chair Erdem Nalbant and Metropolitan Mayor Besim Dutlulu also attended the congress. Members of parliament were also in the hall. District mayors also attended the congress. Party members chanted the slogan “Free Türkiye, free future” as Özel took the podium.
In his speech, Özel greeted Provincial Chair İlksen Özalper, who is in Sincan Prison. He also remembered his son Can. He also greeted his family. Describing Manisa as “the city where everything began,” Özel said they had reached 60 percent on a journey they had started with 6 percent of the vote. Arguing that Türkiye is going through its darkest period, Özel stated that the opposition is being suppressed and that this has been reflected in Council of Europe reports. He claimed that four of his party’s congresses had been annulled. He said a trustee had been appointed to head the main opposition. He argued that someone who had lost elections 14 times had been reinstated. He noted that the cadres who had made his party the leading party after 47 years had been removed. Sending greetings to those who resist and do not surrender, Özel stated that the hand reaching for the ballot box would be broken by the nation. He said this period would pass. He added that no pain or joy experienced would be forgotten.
Why it matters
Özel’s remarks at the Manisa congress can be read as part of an effort to keep the organizational structure intact despite allegations of legal and political pressure on his party. The claims that four congresses have been annulled and that a trustee has been appointed to head the main opposition show that the intra-party debate over leadership and legitimacy has not yet closed. The provincial chairman’s imprisonment indicates that the local organization is operating in the shadow of judicial proceedings. Özel’s narrative stretching from 6 percent to 60 percent, meanwhile, turns Manisa into a symbol of both his own political rise and his party’s transformation. Because the course of the legal proceedings concerning the congress annulments will determine with which cadres and organization the opposition will go to the ballot box, this development concerns not only the party base but all segments that follow the government-opposition balance.
Background
Özel is not a new name in the FikirPilot archive: we have published 16 reports mentioning this name in the last 90 days; the most recent is dated October 11, 2026.