10 İYİ Party MPs refuse to attend party meetings in protest against leader

ANKARA

Ten lawmakers from the İYİ (Good) Party did not attend their party’s group meeting in parliament on Oct. 6 in reaction to Chair Meral Akşener’s decision to appoint Koray Aydın to the party’s executive branch.

The dissident group, including MPs Ümit Özdağ, Durmuş Yılmaz, Feridun Bahşi, İsmail Koncuk and Ayhan Erel, was disgruntled by the appointment of Aydın, who had drawn reaction in the party last month after his intervention in the selection of names who would join the party’s executive branch.

Aydın, who is a former senior official of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) – from which almost all İYİ Party resigned a few years ago —and a close ally of Akşener, allegedly prepared a list of party officials who will not be voted in for the party’s executive branches at the general convention.

Despite criticisms, Akşener appointed Aydın to be in charge of the party’s organization across Turkey last week.

The dissidents decided not to attend the party meetings in the near future in a wait-and-see approach, daily Hürriyet reported. Akşener did not comment on the reaction of the lawmakers, but has spoken with the prominent members of the party.

Akşener had formed İYİ Party after she and some senior members were expelled from the MHP by its leader, Devlet Bahçeli, in 2016. It garnered around 10 percent of votes in the 2018 elections and later joined the Nation Alliance with the social democrat main opposition Republican People Party (CHP).