Following his removal as leader of Turkey's main opposition party, the CHP, by a court controlled by rival Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AKP), Özgür Özel said on Friday that he isn't going anywhere.
"As long as it is not the members of the CHP but the AKP's judicial authorities who decide who should lead the CHP, I will remain in this building and not go anywhere," Özel wrote on X.
Erdoğan and the AKP have governed Turkey since 2003, though his rule in recent years has been marked by increasing authoritarianism.
In defiance of the court, Özel set off for the party's headquarters in Ankara on Thursday evening, together with other CHP members, after the ruling on his removal from the party leadership became known.
He has not left since.
Discussions are taking place there, but the opposition politician is also receiving solidarity visits from other parties, the CHP wrote on X.
Former party leadership reinstated
Meanwhile, as well as ordering Özel's removal, the court in the capital Ankara on Thursday decreed that the CHP's former chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and the previous leadership should temporarily take over the reins of the party.
Kılıçdaroğlu has already taken up his duties as interim party leader, according to media reports.
He had been CHP chairman for more than 10 years, but was regarded as a lacklustre politician and lost to Erdoğan in a run-off in the 2023 elections.
Following his defeat, Özel replaced him at the helm of the CHP and realigned the party.
