Good Party founder Koray Aydin quits amid leadership dispute

Koray Aydin, one of the founding members of the Good Party and a Member of Parliament for Ankara, resigned from his party on Thursday. Aydin expressed his frustration over the lack of transparency regarding a meeting between former party leader Meral Aksener and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, which he described as the final straw.

In a message shared on the social media platform X, Aydin said, “After extensive consultations with my fellow Good Party members, I have decided to resign from the Good Party, where I served as a founding member and Ankara MP, due to the reasons I briefly outlined.”

Aydin wished success to the current party leader, Musavat Dervisoglu, and the party administration in his message. He also highlighted the party’s decline following the recent elections, noting, “As of today, the Good Party has lost one-third of its 617,513 members from early 2023 and more than half of the votes it received in the 2023 general elections, in the 2024 local elections.”

He attributed the party’s decline to Aksener’s leadership, saying, “This entire process of erosion and decline in the Good Party occurred under Ms. Aksener’s direction.”

Aksener had met with President Erdogan on June 5. In a written statement, Aydin pointed out that the meeting, which was considered a “surprise” by the public, was announced by the Presidential Communication Office instead of Good Party sources.

Aydin criticized the lack of any follow-up explanation about the meeting, warning that it could be perceived as an agreement with the government. “If a satisfactory explanation about the content of this meeting is not provided soon, it will wound the conscience of millions who support the Good Party,” he said.

Aydin also expressed his disappointment with the party leadership’s indifference to his concerns. “While our calls attracted significant interest and attention from the Good Party base and our esteemed nation, the Good Party administration remained insensitive and unresponsive to my statements; they did not take the necessary steps in a timely, adequate, and proper manner,” he said.

He described the meeting with Erdogan as “the final straw,” adding, “After the last congress, we expected a period of consolidation and reconciliation within the Good Party, but instead, we were shaken by successive resignations. While we anticipated new additions, we had to witness expulsion requests made for trivial reasons.”

Some figures close to Aksener within the Good Party told BBC Turkish that the meeting was intended for “consultation” and was not a decision binding on the party, but rather a “free and independent decision.”

Aksener did not run for the party leadership at the Extraordinary General Congress held on April 27. Following her announcement, Izmir MP Musavat Dervisoglu and Good Party Parliamentary Group Chair Koray Aydin both ran for the party leadership. In the third round of voting, Dervisoglu was elected as the Good Party leader with 611 delegate votes, while Aydin received 548 votes.