Do we like them?

Do we like Özgür Özel?

Our score: 6 out of 10. A fairly clean record on what we could open, held back by thin evidence and a few claims that sources dispute.

Özgür Özel is the Turkish opposition figure who beat Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in the CHP leadership vote in November 2023. He's a former pharmacist turned MP, and he became the face of the country's main opposition party. We couldn't open a profile page to give you the full backstory, so this is a short column rather than a long one.

The big story is his fight with the courts. In May 2026 the 36th Civil Chamber of the Ankara Regional Court of Justice declared the CHP's 2023 congress invalid and put Kılıçdaroğlu back in charge as an interim measure. The party said it wouldn't recognise the decision and wouldn't leave its headquarters. Kılıçdaroğlu welcomed it, saying “May it be auspicious for Turkey and the CHP”. Later reports we couldn't open in full say Özel quit the CHP in July to found a new party, so check the latest before you rely on that.

He is also the target of a string of legal actions over what he says about Erdoğan. In July 2025 Ankara's chief public prosecutor opened an investigation on suspicion of insulting the president, after Özel condemned the arrests of CHP mayors at a press conference. In January 2026 Erdoğan filed a 500,000 lira moral damages claim over a Beykoz rally speech, plus a criminal complaint for insulting the president. None of that has been decided against him in anything we could read.

On the harm test, we found nothing that is harmful in his own words or acts in the pages we opened. The Beykoz speech was about Erdoğan's relationship with Donald Trump, which Özel called “a danger for Turkey”. We did see reports that he backed some LGBTQ+ rights and called for Syrians' temporary protection status to end, but only in snippets and partisan outlets, so we haven't scored on them. Treat that as a gap in our record, not a clean bill of health.

The good-person test is about the pattern, and the pattern we could read is a politician fighting a powerful government at personal legal risk. His critics, including the justice minister and pro-government papers, say some of his claims are baseless. That's a contested political fight rather than evidence of mistreating people.

So: lean yes. He's on the side of democratic opposition and hasn't shown up in anything nasty, but we couldn't verify his record on trans people or refugees. If those are your dealbreakers, dig further before you put him on the fridge.