A Turkish appeals court has annulled the 2023 congress of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), removing party leader Özgür Özel and the current party administration from office as an interim measure and reinstating former chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and his team, Turkish Minute reported, citing the state-run Anadolu news agency.
The ruling by the 36th Civil Chamber of the Ankara Regional Court of Justice on Thursday concerns the CHP’s 38th Ordinary Congress, where Özel defeated Kılıçdaroğlu in November 2023 and became party chairman.
According to Anadolu, the court ruled that the congress was legally invalid and ordered Kılıçdaroğlu and the party bodies elected under his leadership to return to office.
The decision also means the current CHP administration will be temporarily removed from office.
The decision, if implemented, will amount to one of the most dramatic judicial interventions in Turkey’s main opposition party in recent years.
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.
The ruling triggered a sharp selloff on Borsa İstanbul, with the BIST 100 index falling more than 6 percent intraday and the banking index losing more than 8 percent. Trading was temporarily halted after the losses triggered a market-wide circuit breaker, according to Turkish media reports.
The congress case based allegations of irregularities in the 2023 leadership vote, including claims of vote buying and manipulation.
The CHP has denied wrongdoing and has said the lawsuits are part of an effort to undermine the party’s elected leadership.
An Ankara court in October 2025 dismissed the same lawsuit, ruling that it had become moot because the CHP had since held another leadership vote and re-elected Özel at an extraordinary congress in September 2025.
A finding that the congress was legally invalid means the congress at which Özel was elected chairman is being treated as if it had never taken place.
That affects the status of Özel, the party’s executive board and the party assembly, as well as decisions taken by the current leadership.
The process could still be challenged before higher courts.
The CHP’s first reaction was to reject the ruling. Party officials told BirGün daily they did not recognize the decision, while the CHP’s Ankara provincial branch called on members to gather at party headquarters.
“Shoulder to shoulder, as one, we invite everyone to our headquarters to defend democracy, solidarity and the will of the people,” the provincial branch said.
The party also decided that its headquarters should not be vacated, according to Turkish media reports.
Kılıçdaroğlu, meanwhile, welcomed the ruling in brief remarks to the pro-government TGRT Haber.
“May it be auspicious for Turkey and the CHP,” he said.
Kılıçdaroğlu led the CHP for 13 years before losing the party leadership to Özel. He was also the opposition’s joint presidential candidate in 2023, when he lost to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
The court decision comes one day after Kılıçdaroğlu drew criticism from within the opposition for calling on the CHP to engage in “purification” and “self-reflection” at a time when the party was facing a wave of investigations and arrests.
In a video posted on X on Tuesday, Kılıçdaroğlu described the CHP as a “sacred trust” and said the party must not become a refuge for wrongdoing, remarks that critics said appeared to lend credibility to corruption allegations used in ongoing operations targeting CHP-run municipalities.
The CHP, Turkey’s oldest political party, was established by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, and has long identified itself with the country’s republican and secular traditions.
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 next presidential election, scheduled for 2028. The government denies interfering in the judiciary and says Turkish courts act independently.
