Nine members of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) have been arrested in an investigation into alleged irregularities at the party’s 2023 congress, Turkish Minute reported, citing the state-run Anadolu news agency.
The investigation is linked to the same congress that was annulled by an appeals court last week, a ruling that removed Özgür Özel from party leadership and reinstated former chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
The İstanbul Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office said 13 suspects had been detained in İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir, Şanlıurfa, Kahramanmaraş, Kilis and Malatya as part of an investigation into claims that members’ voting preferences were influenced during the CHP’s 38th Ordinary Congress.
The suspects are accused of violating the Law on Political Parties, taking bribes and laundering assets obtained through crime, according to the prosecutor’s office.
Some of those detained were reported to have served in party roles, including as congress delegates and district chairmen, during the period of the CHP congress.
According to Anadolu, the allegations include claims that some suspects determined their voting preferences in exchange for benefits such as municipal tenders, jobs for relatives in municipalities and cash payments.
Anadolu identified those arrested as Safi Karayalçın, Suat Dülger, Kalender Özdemir, Özkan Deniz, İbrahim Şahin, Umut Sapan, Metin Kaya, Gaffar Çiçek and Mehmet Ayıp Demirbüken. Ayça Akpek Şenay, Gülhan Aydın, Melda Tanışman Tutan and Hayati Kaya were released under judicial supervision.
In a related ruling on Thursday, the 36th Civil Chamber of the Ankara Regional Court of Justice annulled the CHP’s 38th Ordinary Congress, where Özel defeated Kılıçdaroğlu in November 2023 and became party chairman.
The ruling removed Özel and the current party administration from office as an interim measure and ordered Kılıçdaroğlu and the party bodies elected under his leadership at the previous congress to return to office.
The ruling also rendered legally void the extraordinary congresses held after the 38th Ordinary Congress, amendments to the party bylaws and changes to the party program.
The decision, described in the Turkish media as the first ruling of its kind in Turkey, opened the way for Kılıçdaroğlu, who led the CHP for 13 years before losing the chairmanship to Özel, to return to party leadership along with the Party Assembly and High Disciplinary Board members elected at the 37th Ordinary Congress.
Kılıçdaroğlu later changed the title on his social media accounts to “Chairman of the Republican People’s Party.”
The CHP also appealed to the Supreme Election Council (YSK), arguing that the dispute over the party congress should be handled by election boards, but the council rejected the appeal, leaving the court ruling in force.
Kılıçdaroğlu was reported to have told Özel during a meeting on May 22 that he would take the party to a congress “at the most appropriate time.”
The CHP rejected the court decision, with party officials saying they did not recognize the ruling. The party’s Ankara provincial branch called on members to gather at CHP headquarters.
On Sunday riot police used tear gas and forced their way into the CHP’s Ankara headquarters after party members blocked the entrances in defiance of the court order. Police moved in after supporters of Kılıçdaroğlu tried to enter the building, while Özel left the headquarters surrounded by supporters and walked toward parliament.
Human Rights Watch on Saturday described the court order as “the latest deeply damaging blow to the rule of law, democracy and human rights” in Turkey and said it was part of “the ongoing abusive tactics by the Erdoğan government to remove the CHP as a political force.”
The CHP has been under growing legal and political pressure since its major gains in the March 2024 local elections, with more than 20 of its mayors and hundreds of municipal officials detained or arrested in investigations the party says are politically motivated.
Turkish authorities last year jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s main political rival and the CHP’s candidate for the presidential election scheduled for 2028.
Özel and the CHP leadership have repeatedly accused Erdoğan’s government of using the courts to pressure the opposition and weaken the party ahead of the election. The government denies interfering in the judiciary and says Turkish courts act independently.
