On Sunday, in a sports hall in Turkey’s capital Ankara, thousands of party members gathered to witness the end of an era. Delegates from the Republican People’s party (CHP) – the secularist party of modern Turkey’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk – voted to replace longtime leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu after a painful defeat against Recep Tayyip Erdogan in elections earlier this year. The new hope is Ozgur Ozel, a 49 year-old former pharmacist who has criticised the party’s “passive politics” and promised a new direction ahead of local elections in March, when Erdogan’s Justice and Development party (AKP) will fight to regain control of major cities including Istanbul and Ankara.