International criticism has been mounting since a Turkish appeals court 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 and reinstating former chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and his team.
The ruling by the Ankara Regional Court of Justice on Thursday concerned the CHP’s 38th Ordinary Congress, where Özel defeated Kılıçdaroğlu in November 2023 and became party chairman.
The court ruled that the congress was legally invalid, a decision that could treat the vote as if it had never taken place.
The CHP refused to recognize what it called an “unlawful decision” and filed objections with both the court and election authorities.
The Supreme Election Council (YSK) was scheduled to meet at 4 p.m. Friday to review the party’s objection. Earlier reports had claimed that the objection had been rejected, but there was no official confirmation.
The 36th Civil Chamber of the Ankara Regional Court of Justice, however, rejected a separate request by CHP headquarters to lift the interim measure.
The ruling quickly drew criticism beyond Turkey, with international political groups and European officials warning that it threatened political pluralism and democratic competition.
EU foreign affairs spokesperson Anitta Hipper said in a statement Friday that Turkey, as an EU candidate country and a longtime member of the Council of Europe, is expected to uphold democratic standards, the rule of law and fundamental rights.
Hipper said the court’s decision to annul the CHP congresses and an ongoing crackdown on the party that led to the arrest of more than 20 of its mayors including İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu raised questions about the rule of law, democratic pluralism, fundamental rights and judicial independence.
“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,” she said.
Socialist International said in a statement on X that it was “extremely worried” by the judicial decision regarding the CHP leadership and described the annulment of Özel’s election as “a clear and unlawful act.”
“The attempt to replace Özgür Özel through such a procedure with the previous party administration is a blow to Turkey’s democratic system and is truly unacceptable,” the organization said, expressing full solidarity with Özel and the CHP’s elected leadership.
The PES Group in the European Committee of the Regions also condemned the ruling, saying overruling the democratic choice made by CHP delegates at the party’s 2023 congress was “an attack on political pluralism.”
“We stand in solidarity with the elected CHP leadership and those defending democracy, rule of law and political freedom in Turkey,” the group said on X, adding that Europe “cannot stay silent.”
Nacho Sánchez Amor, the European Parliament’s rapporteur on Turkey, described the decision as a turning point for Turkey’s political system.
“With the decision of ‘absolute nullity’ … we enter into a dark era in Turkey,” Sánchez Amor said on X. “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.”
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul also criticized the decision, saying it conflicted with Turkey’s stated goal of European Union membership.
Speaking on the sidelines of a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting in Helsingborg, Sweden, Wadephul said Ankara continued to reaffirm its commitment to joining the EU but that such a court decision ran counter to that commitment.
Wadephul said he was concerned by the annulment of an entire party congress and the removal of the opposition leader, adding that political competition in democracies should be conducted through politics rather than the courts.
Several German lawmakers also voiced concern, according to Deutsche Welle.
Serdar Yüksel of the Social Democratic Party, Max Lucks of the Greens and Social Democrat Derya Türk-Nachbaur warned that the ruling raised questions about judicial independence and the treatment of opposition parties in Turkey.
They described the decision as political rather than legal and urged Germany and the European Union to take a clearer stance toward Ankara.
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 congress case was based on allegations of irregularities in the 2023 leadership vote, including claims of vote buying and manipulation. The CHP denies wrongdoing and says 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.
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.
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.
