YENİ Parti was founded on 24 July 2026 — the anniversary of the Treaty of Lausanne was chosen as the founding date — by 91 members of parliament who had left the CHP. Those 91 seats made it the second largest group in the chamber and brought main-opposition status with them.
What preceded it
The split followed a court ruling two months earlier. On 21 May the 36th Civil Chamber of the Ankara Regional Court of Appeals annulled the CHP's 38th ordinary congress of 4–5 November 2023 for absolute nullity; chairman Özgür Özel and the party's governing bodies were removed by interim measure and Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and the pre-2023 bodies were reinstated. The decision reached the Court of Cassation on 17 July.
İmamoğlu joins
Nineteen days after the founding, on 12 August, Istanbul's mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu — in pre-trial detention since March 2025 — resigned his 17-year CHP membership from prison and called on supporters to join the new party under Özgür Özel.
What comes next
The party's first test will be completing its organisation in the shadow of the cases running against its people. A significant part of the founding cadre appears, directly or indirectly, in files arising from the investigations into opposition-run municipalities.
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