A court in Ankara on Thursday ordered the removal of the leader of the Turkey's largest opposition party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), state news agency Anadolu reported.
The ruling strips Özgür Özel and the current party leadership of their positions, Anadolu said.
Özel promised his supporters that he would endure the pain, but would not surrender.
I promise you honour, dignity, courage and fighting spirit!” he wrote on X.
The court also ordered that former CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and the party’s previous leadership temporarily take over the party’s administration.
The verdict is not yet final.
According to Anadolu, the court ruled that the 2023 party congress, during which Özel was elected chairman, was retroactively declared invalid. This also renders all subsequent ordinary and extraordinary party congresses and their resolutions invalid.
Bribed to vote?
The issue at stake is whether delegates were bribed to vote for him during the CHP leadership contest in November 2023. The case, brought by a former party member, has weighed on the party for years.
Özel called an extraordinary meeting in Ankara. According to the newspaper Cumhuriyet, CHP supporters were urged via text message to gather outside the party headquarters in the Turkish capital. The police are reported to have erected barricades.
The CHP leadership has denied the accusations. The case was dismissed in October before later being reopened.
Turkey’s judiciary has been intensifying pressure on the CHP for more than a year, with hundreds of party members and numerous mayors detained. At the same time, internal power struggles have simmered between supporters of Özel and his predecessor Kılıçdaroğlu.
Kılıçdaroğlu led the CHP for more than a decade before unsuccessfully challenging long-serving President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in the 2023 presidential election.
Özel was chosen to replace Kılıçdaroğlu after the election defeat and sought to reposition the party.
The most prominent CHP figure detained so far is former Istanbul mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, regarded as one of Erdoğan’s most serious political rivals. İmamoğlu has been held in pre-trial detention since March 2025 and is on trial on corruption charges.
Özgür Celik, the CHP provincial chairman for Istanbul, also described the court ruling as politically motivated. “They want to destroy the republic, suspend democracy and deprive the people of their right to vote,” he wrote on X, referring to the government. The Turkish people would not allow this to happen. “Turkey will not bow to this tyranny,” he wrote.
“It is a dark day in the history of Turkey,” political scientist Berk Esen wrote. An attempt is being made through legal channels to transform the largest opposition party, the CHP, in an unprecedented manner.
Erdoğan has been in power for more than 20 years. Since the introduction of a presidential system in 2018, he has held far-reaching powers and, among others, significant influence over the appointment of judges and prosecutors.
The next regular elections are due in 2028. According to the constitution, Erdoğan may only stand as a candidate again in the event of a snap election. However, he is seeking a constitutional amendment.
