From Albania’s ‘Flamingo Revolution’ to Turkey’s embattled opposition, BIRN’s premium selection of stories this week tell a fighting mood is visible across south-east Europe, despite the summer heat.
Milos Damnjanovic
Turkey’s opposition political scene is heating up. On July 21, Ozgur Ozel announced that he was leaving the main opposition Republican People’s Party, CHP, to establish a new party.
The news followed a crisis triggered two months ago, when a court annulled Ozel’s election as CHP leader at an earlier party congress, restoring his predecessor, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, as leader. Ozel’s new party looks set to take a majority of the CHP’s MPs and voters. But can it be turned into a political force capable of taking on the ruling party?
Read more: New Party Brings Fresh Hope – and Risks – for Turkey’s Embattled Opposition (July 23, 2026)
