Allegations of a CHP figure secretly meeting President Erdoğan sparked debate inside the main opposition party

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The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP)'s Muharrem Ince has demanded that a journalist who claimed that a CHP figure met with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who allegedly offered help to install the figure as the new head of the CHP.

Columnist Rahmi Turan of the opposition Sözcü daily newspaper claimed in is column on Wednesday that a CHP politician met with Erdoğan at his presidential palace Ankara. 

“For Turkey's security, we need you to be the chairman of the CHP. Think about it, make a decision. This is necessary for the good of the country. And I can be of help!” Turan alleged Erdoğan as saying. 

Ince, a prominent CHP politician who ran against Erdoğan in the 2018 presidential elections, wrote a tweet in which he demanded that the CHP figure in question be revealed. 

“The chair of the CHP is elected by free-willed council delegates. The [presidential] palace cannot intervene. The person mentioned anonymously by Sözcü's Rahmi Turan's must be revealed. If they do not reveal it, Rahmi Turan must announce the name of the person at the doors of the palace in pursuit of the CHP chair,” Ince wrote.   

Turan wrote in his column that he was unable to reveal the name of the person in question, whom he referred to as 'important', as he did not have their approval to do so. 

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has led the CHP since 2010, and is known for having gotten under Erdoğan's skin, given that the president has filed numerous lawsuits over the years against the opposition for insulting him.