Turkiye's Erdogan meets opposition leader for first time in 8 years

Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan held talks with the leader of the main opposition CHP party today, the first such meeting in nearly eight years, just one month after the CHP outperformed Erdogan’s party in local elections, Reuters reports.

The 31 March vote marked Erdogan and his AK Party’s (AKP) worst defeat in more than 20 years in power. It revitalised the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) under new chief Ozgur Ozel, and strengthened Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu’s standing as a strong future presidential contender.

Erdogan subsequently vowed to correct any mistakes that had led to his party’s defeat, which analysts attributed mainly to voter frustration with economic woes, especially soaring inflation.

Ozel entered the AKP headquarters in Ankara just after 4pm (1300 GMT). The talks were expected to focus on efforts to agree on a new constitution, economic developments and the situation in Gaza, according to state broadcaster TRT Haber.

Analysts viewed the local elections as having dented Erdogan’s hopes of pushing through a new constitution, which could potentially extend his rule beyond 2028 when his term ends.

Today’s meeting was the first between Erdogan and a CHP leader since 2016, when he hosted then-chief Kemal Kilicdaroglu at the presidential palace after an attempted military coup on 15 July of that year.

The following month, Kilicdaroglu joined a huge rally staged by Erdogan in a further show of political unity – though their relations remained frosty.

After 13 years with Kilicdaroglu at the CHP helm, Ozel became party leader last November amid a push for change in the secularist party, which had been dogged by in-fighting.

Ozel’s agenda for the talks was focused on economic problems, notably state pensions and the medium wage, foreign policy and coordination between the central government and municipalities, according to party sources.

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