Özgür Özel () (born 21 September 1974) is a Turkish pharmacist and politician who has served as

leader Leadership, is defined as the ability of an individual, group, or organization to "", influence, or guide other individuals, teams, or organizations. "Leadership" is a contested term. Specialist literature debates various viewpoints on the co ...

of the

Republican People's Party The Republican People's Party (RPP; , CHP ) is a Kemalism, Kemalist and Social democracy, social democratic political party in Turkey. It is the oldest List of political parties in Turkey, political party in Turkey, founded by Mustafa Kemal ...

(CHP) since 2023. He had previously shared the parliamentary deputy group leadership of the CHP with Engin Altay and Levent Gök between 2015 and 2023. Özel has been an MP for the

electoral district An electoral (congressional, legislative, etc.) district, sometimes called a constituency, riding, or ward, is a geographical portion of a political unit, such as a country, state or province, city, or administrative region, created to provi ...

Manisa Manisa () is a city in Turkey's Aegean Region and the administrative seat of Manisa Province, lying approximately 40 km northeast of the major city of İzmir. The city forms the urban part of the districts Şehzadeler and Yunusemre, with ...

since the 2011 general election and is well known for his activism concerning the rights of

miner A miner is a person who extracts ore, coal, chalk, clay, or other minerals from the earth through mining. There are two senses in which the term is used. In its narrowest sense, a miner is someone who works at the rock face (mining), face; cutt ...

s in

Manisa Province Manisa Province () is a Provinces of Turkey, province and Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality in western Turkey. Its area is 13,339 km2, and its population is 1,468,279 (2022). Its neighboring provinces are İzmi ...

. Since February 2024, he has served as vice president of the

Socialist International The Socialist International (SI) is a political international or worldwide organisation of political parties which seek to establish democratic socialism, consisting mostly of Social democracy, social democratic political parties and Labour mov ...

Early life and career

Education

Özgür Özel was born in

on 21 September 1974. He comes from a Balkan Turkish family originating from

Skopje Skopje ( , ; ; , sq-definite, Shkupi) is the capital and largest city of North Macedonia. It lies in the northern part of the country, in the Skopje Basin, Skopje Valley along the Vardar River, and is the political, economic, and cultura ...

North Macedonia North Macedonia, officially the Republic of North Macedonia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe. It shares land borders with Greece to the south, Albania to the west, Bulgaria to the east, Kosovo to the northwest and Serbia to the n ...

and

Thessaloniki Thessaloniki (; ), also known as Thessalonica (), Saloniki, Salonika, or Salonica (), is the second-largest city in Greece (with slightly over one million inhabitants in its Thessaloniki metropolitan area, metropolitan area) and the capital cit ...

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

and completed his primary education there. After completing his secondary education, he started college at

İzmir İzmir is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, third most populous city in Turkey, after Istanbul and Ankara. It is on the Aegean Sea, Aegean coast of Anatolia, and is the capital of İzmir Province. In 2024, the city of İzmir had ...

Bornova Anatolian High School but returned to Manisa to complete high school. He graduated from

Ege University Ege University or Aegean University () is a public research university in Bornova, İzmir. It was founded in 1955 with the faculties of Medicine and Agriculture. It is the first university to start courses in İzmir and the fourth oldest unive ...

Faculty of

Pharmacy Pharmacy is the science and practice of discovering, producing, preparing, dispensing, reviewing and monitoring medications, aiming to ensure the safe, effective, and affordable use of medication, medicines. It is a miscellaneous science as it ...

Pharmacist

After graduating from university, Özel worked in an independent pharmacy practice from 1999. He served as the Secretary-General of the Manisa Chamber of Pharmacists between 2001 and 2007 and held the position of Chamber President for two terms. He also took on the roles of Spokesperson and President in the Manisa Academic Associations Union during the same years. Starting in 2007, he has served as an executive board member, accountant and two-term General Secretary for the Turkish Pharmacists Association, having made numerous statements and presentations in 163 different congresses and conferences. Özel is also a member of the International Pharmacists Federation, the European Union Pharmacists Group and the European Pharmacists Forum. Between 2007 and 2011, he served as the treasurer of the Turkish Pharmacists' Association for one term and held the position of Secretary-General for two terms.

Early political career

Republican People's Party

Özel was elected as a Member of Parliament for the

in the 2011 general election and was re-elected in June 2015 and November 2015. He was elected to the CHP party council in the party's 18th Extraordinary Convention held in September 2014. At the start of the short-lived 25th Parliament on 24 June 2015, he was elected as a CHP parliamentary deputy group leader and was re-elected at the start of the 26th Parliament in November 2015, where he served alongside Engin Altay and Levent Gök. He took on important responsibilities as an MP, including roles in the Health, Family, Labor, and Social Affairs Committee, the CHP Prisons Monitoring and Inspection Committee, the CHP Universities and Student Issues Research Committee and the Parliamentary Soma Mine Research Committee. In 2015, Özel was awarded the

Uğur Mumcu Uğur Mumcu (; 22 August 1942 – 24 January 1993)
um:ag was a

Politician of the Year Award by the Atatürkist Thought Association and the Contemporary Journalists Association. In the 25th, 26th, and 27th legislative terms, he served as the Deputy Chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP) Parliamentary Group, overseeing the CHP's work in the Parliament. He served as the Chairman of the CHP Parliamentary Group between 2015 and 2023.

Soma mine disaster

Özel, along with other CHP MPs from Manisa, made worldwide headlines following the Soma mine disaster in May 2014, where 301 miners were killed after coal mine collapsed in Soma,

. The disaster caused large-scale criticism of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government, since it had rejected a parliamentary motion that Özel had put forward to investigate mining incidents in Soma and other mining towns just two months before the disaster. His speeches before and after the disaster received nationwide attention.

CHP leadership candidacy

In 2023, Özel ran for party leadership at the 38th Republican People's Party Ordinary Convention. Özel criticized

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (; born 17 December 1948), also referred to by his initials KK, is a Turkish politician who served as the Leader of the Republican People's Party, leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP) from 2010 to 2023. He was Lis ...

for stifling internal democracy and said that the party's leader should be elected democratically. He also objected to Kılıçdaroğlu's analogy of "delivering the party to a safe harbor", asking "Who dragged that ship HPinto dangerous waters?" Kılıçdaroğlu's ticket sharing deal to elect 36 deputies from minor parties aligned with the CHP was also severely criticized. In the second round of the CHP congress held on 5 November 2023, Özel was elected the new leader of the CHP.

Leader of the Republican People's Party

Özel's first electoral test as leader came in the

2024 Turkish local elections Local elections in Turkey took place throughout the country's 81 provinces on 31 March 2024. A total of 30 metropolitan and 1,363 district municipal mayors, alongside 1,282 provincial and 21,001 municipal councilors were elected, in addition t ...

, where the results were described as a "spectacular upset" victory for the opposition CHP, which despite the lack of any electoral pacts managed to retain all but one of its metropolitan mayoralties, while winning four more. In particular, the party's candidates in Turkey's largest city

Istanbul Istanbul is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, constituting the country's economic, cultural, and historical heart. With Demographics of Istanbul, a population over , it is home to 18% of the Demographics ...

and capital

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

Ekrem İmamoğlu Ekrem İmamoğlu (born 4 June 1970) is a Turkish politician and businessman who has served as the 32nd Mayor of Istanbul since 2019. He is currently suspended from office temporarily. He is the Republican People's Party (CHP) candidate for the ...

and

Mansur Yavaş Mansur Yavaş (; born 23 May 1955) is a Turkish lawyer and politician who is currently the Mayor of Ankara, holding the office since April 2019. He was elected in the 2019 Ankara mayoral election as the candidate of the Nation Alliance (Turkey), ...

, were re-elected by landslide 51% and 60%, respectively. Both mayors also won majorities in their respective metropolitan councils. The CHP also won many unexpected victories in areas that had been under AKP control for the previous two decades, including

Bursa Bursa () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the Marmara Region, Bursa is one of the industrial centers of the country. Most of ...

Balıkesir Balıkesir () is a city in the Marmara Region, Marmara region of Turkey. It is the seat of Balıkesir Province, which is also a Metropolitan municipalities in Turkey, metropolitan municipality. As of 2022, the population of Balıkesir Province ...

Kütahya Kütahya (; historically, Cotyaeum or Kotyaion; Ancient Greek, Greek: Κοτύαιον) is a city in western Turkey which lies on the Porsuk River, at 969 metres above sea level. It is the seat of Kütahya Province and Kütahya District. In 19 ...

Adıyaman Adıyaman () is a city in southeastern Turkey. It is the administrative centre of Adıyaman Province and Adıyaman District. Its population is 267,131 (2021). The inhabitants of the city are mostly Turkish and Kurdish. The city was one of the ...

Amasya Amasya () is a city in northern Turkey, in the Black Sea Region. It was called Amaseia or Amasia in antiquity."Amasya" in ''Encyclopædia Britannica, The New Encyclopædia Britannica''. Chicago: Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 15th edn., 1992, Vol ...

Kırıkkale Kırıkkale is a city in the Central Anatolia Region, Turkey, Central Anatolia region of Turkey. It is the seat of Kırıkkale Province and Kırıkkale District.Kilis Kilis is a city in southernmost Turkey, near the Syria–Turkey border, border with Syria, and the administrative centre of Kilis Province and Kilis District. Its population is 112,187 (2022). On 6 February 2023 Kilis was badly affected by the tw ...

and

Denizli Denizli is a city in Aegean Region, Aegean Turkey, and seat of the province of Denizli Province, Denizli. The city forms the urban part of the districts Merkezefendi and Pamukkale, Denizli, Pamukkale, with a population of 691 783 in 2024. Denizl ...

. The party also managed to win swathes of districts within many provinces, many of which delivered vote swings of over 30% in the CHP's favor. Overall, the CHP won 35 of Turkey's 81 provincial capitals, with the People's Alliance winning 32. This was the first nationwide election since

1977 Events January * January 8 – 1977 Moscow bombings, Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (no ...

where the CHP came first in the popular vote. In 2025, Özel criticized the arrest and detention of Istanbul's mayor and CHP member

, calling it a "a coup against our next president". He has since been involved in the

2025 Turkish protests {{Infobox civil conflict , title = 2025 Turkish protests , partof = Third wave of autocratization,democratic backsliding in Turkey , image = File:Saraçhane’de direniş.jpg , image_alt = , image_size = 340px , caption = Protestors in Sar ...

that followed İmamoğlu's imprisonment, during which Özel called for a boycott of firms believed to be close to President

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician who is the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the 25th prime minister of Turkey, prime minister from 2003 to 2014 as part of the Jus ...

. On 4 May 2025, Özel was struck in the face by an assailant while he was attending a memorial service for MP

Sırrı Süreyya Önder Sırrı Süreyya Önder (7 July 1962 – 3 May 2025) was a Turkish film director, actor, screenwriter, columnist and politician. Elected to parliament in 2011 as an independent backed by the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), he later joined the p ...

in Istanbul. The suspected attacker was detained.

Personal life

Özel is married to Didem Özel, and has a daughter. He speaks Turkish, German and English. He supports Fenerbahçe.

References

External links

MP profile on the Grand National Assembly websiteTwitter Account
, - {{DEFAULTSORT:Ozel, Ozgur Living people People from Manisa Ege University alumni 1974 births Turkish pharmacists Contemporary Republican People's Party (Turkey) politicians Members of the 24th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 25th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 26th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 27th Parliament of Turkey Members of the 28th Parliament of Turkey Deputies of Manisa Leaders of the opposition (Turkey) Macedonian Turks Leaders of political parties in Turkey Leaders of the Republican People's Party (Turkey)