Turkish Court Ruling Reinstates Former Opposition Leader Following Opposition Victory, Igniting Reaction

Peloni:  It is interesting that as the West is crippled with a judiciary which weaponizes legal codes and norms to support the establishment, even to the point of eliminating opposition candidates with ease, the same standard of corruption and social failing is not being adopted inside Erdogan’s Turkey.   A very interesting development.

MEMRI.org | June 10, 2026

The results of the March 2024 local elections in Turkey in which the CHP, under the leadership of Özgür Özel, defeated the AKP for the first time in the 22 years of the AKP’s rule. Image via Memri.org

On May 21, 2026, the 36th Civil Chamber of the Ankara Regional Court of Appeals ruled that the 38th Ordinary Congress, held November 4-5, 2023, and 21st Extraordinary Congress, held September 21, 2025, of Turkey’s leading opposition party, the Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (CHP), were “absolutely null and void” due to corruption, it said, in the proceedings.[1] This ruling created a legislative and judicial crisis in the CHP that is ongoing.

Background

At the November 2023 congress of the CHP, Özgür Özel was elected party leader, defeating Kemal K?l?çdaro?lu, who had been party leader since 2010. This was the first time in Turkish history that a party leader lost his position in a party congress.[2] Subsequently, in the March 2024 local elections, for the first time in 22 years of the rule of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an’s Adalet ve Kalk?nma Partisi (AKP), the CHP received more votes than the AKP – 37.8 percent of Turks voted for the CHP over 35.5 percent voting for the AKP.[3] The court’s May 21 ruling invalidated this election and reinstated K?l?çdaro?lu in the position of party leader. Many Turks see the May 21 court ruling as an effort by President Erdo?an to divide and distract the party that now poses a real threat to his rule. The Turkish stock market closed with a six percent loss that day.[4]

This would not be the first time President Erdo?an’s government has used state power to seek to crush the opposition in Turkey. In December 2022, ahead of a May 2023 presidential election, Ekrem ?mamo?lu, the mayor of Istanbul, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison for insulting a government body.[5] Four months later, on March 23, 2025, he was arrested on separate corruption and terrorism charges and brought to Istanbul’s Silivri prison, provoking massive protests in support of him.[6] The same day, in a primary election involving close to 15,000,000 voters, his party chose him as its next presidential candidate.[7] Despite ?mamo?lu already being in prison, another warrant for his arrest on political espionage charges was put out in October of that year.[8] The indictment against him seeks a sentence of between 849 and 2,430 years in prison for the various charges.[9] His trial is ongoing.[10]

Immediate Aftermath

On May 21, 2026, the day the ruling was announced, after a nearly five-hour meeting of the CHP Central Executive Board, Özel, speaking from the CHP party headquarters in Ankara, said: “As of right now, until the danger has passed and until CHP supporters, not the judicial arms of the AKP, decide who is going to lead the CHP, I will be in this building, I will be in my office; I am not going anywhere.”[11] On May 22, K?l?çdaro?lu updated his Twitter bio so that it read “Chairman of the Republican People’s Party,”[12] using the court ruling to assume leadership of the party despite being defeated in the party’s 2023 congress.

On May 23, the metropolitan mayors from the CHP issued a statement about the court ruling, saying: “We are aware that the true aim of the ‘absolute nullification’ decision is to divide and fragment our Republican People’s Party and weaken our nation’s hope for a change of government… We stand by our party’s elected Chairman Özgür Özel and our party leadership.”[13] Those mayors include a number of significant CHP leaders, such as the imprisoned Ekrem ?mamo?lu and Mansur Yava?, the mayor of Ankara.[14] General President of the CHP Women’s Branch Asu Kaya said of the May 21 court ruling: “There is no place for Palace lackeys in the Republican People’s Party.”[15]

In the morning on May 24, Turkish police raided the CHP’s party headquarters in Ankara, entering the building by force using vehicles, rubber bullets, and tear gas. CHP officials in the building at the time sought to physically keep the police out but the police gained control of the first floor before doing the same to the rest of the building. CHP Deputy Group Chairman Murat Emir said that before the raid, he had met with Interior Minister Mustafa Çiftçi to request that “security forces not enter the CHP headquarters by force until the Supreme Court Chief Prosecutor’s Office intervenes in this legal absurdity,” to which Interior Minister Çiftçi had “listened politely.”[16] Before the raid, Özel, who was in the building at the time, uploaded a video to the Internet in which he said: “Our crime is defeating the AKP. We will struggle until the end. They may take our bodies but they cannot take our struggle.” Özel left the building after the raid.[17]

On June 9, Özel and K?l?çdaro?lu held separate simultaneous group meetings. Özel was at parliament, where he noted that, in the three years that he had been its chairman, the party had grown from capturing 25 percent to 38 percent of the vote, while K?l?çdaro?lu, who discussed purging the party of corruption, spoke at the party headquarters.[18]

Other Opposition Leaders’ Reactions

Özel has been particularly active since the ruling, and has said: “This is not an issue between Özgür Özel and Kemal K?l?çdaro?lu. This is a matter between Recep Tayyip Erdo?an and the nation;”[19] “We will not be the acceptable opposition party of the established order;”[20] and “I do not swear that power will be reached through a rose garden. I swear to you to endure pain and not surrender.”[21]

Many opposition figures have reacted strongly against the court ruling. Müsavat Dervi?o?lu, leader of the ?Y? Party, a leading opposition party behind the CHP, said: “This approach, which violates our Constitution, is a threat to all political parties.”[22] Senior ?Y? Party official Avukat Öztürk said: “Today, [as a result of this ruling,] any political party’s process of a congress or convention that has passed through the scrutiny of the election judiciary and been concluded may come once again before the general courts and be made the subject of argument.”[23] The Turkish Workers Party said in a statement: “We will not recognize the person who takes the CHP seat with the permission of the ruling party.”[24]

Tülay Hatimo?ullar?, who is co-chair of the Kurdish-led Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party, another leading opposition party, said:  “The imposition today on the CHP of the ‘absolute nullification’ is an example of the redesign of democratic politics. Those who opposed the military tutelage regime have now become the tutelage regime of a certain group.”[25] The leader of the Victory Party called the ruling “a heavy blow against the judicial security of Turkey. It is the discounting of the national will that comes from the ballot box. It will open the way for the cancellation of elections and congresses completed years ago, if this becomes a settled interpretation.”[26]

European Reactions

Some high-level European leaders and organizations have condemned the court ruling. Dario Nardella, who was mayor of Florence from 2014 to 2024 and is now a member of European Parliament, travelled to Istanbul on the day the ruling was announced and, appearing in a photo in CHP offices alongside party officials, wrote on X in a post with over 100,000 views: “We are facing a serious violation of the rule of law and democracy in one of the world’s most important countries. Europe must respond firmly in the face of actions taken by one of its main political and trade partners. I am in Istanbul to closely follow the situation together with my #CHP colleagues.”[27]

Member of European Parliament Nacho Sanchez Amor wrote on X the same day: “With the decision of ‘absolute nullity’ on the congress of CHP, Atatürk’s party, we enter into a dark era in Türkiye. It’s a well prepared plan to eliminate the main opposition party. It’s a blueprint of a fully authoritarian system. The EU can’t be blind nor silent anymore.”^[28] The Party of European Socialists Group in the European Committee of the Regions wrote on X: “Overruling the democratic choice by CHP delegates at the 2023 party congress is an attack on political pluralism. We stand in solidarity with the elected CHP leadership & those defending democracy, rule of law and political freedom in Türkiye. Europe cannot stay silent!”^[29]

The Socialist International issued also on May 21 a “Statement of the Socialist International in solidarity with democracy and Özgür Özel.”[30] EU spokesperson Anitta Hipper said in a May 22 statement that the ruling “gives rise to questions about the rule of law, fundamental rights, democratic pluralism and the independence of the judiciary. Political opposition must be free to operate, organise, and participate in the political process without fear of repression. Legal and administrative proceedings should not be used to intimidate opposition parties and politicians, or hamper their participation in the political process on equal footing with governing parties.”^[31] On June 4, 2026, A delegation from Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) visited Özel.[32]