A Turkish court on Tuesday dismissed the leadership of the İstanbul branch of the country’s main opposition party and installed a court-appointed caretaker board, a move seen as shaking the balance of power within the opposition as President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan continues to exert pressure on his critics, Turkish Minute reported.
The decision from the 45th Civil Court of First Instance annulled the October 2023 provincial congress of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), which included an intraparty vote to elect the provincial leaders. The court removed provincial chairman Özgür Çelik and his executive team, suspended nearly 200 local delegates and froze the party’s ongoing internal election process in Turkey’s largest city.
In their place the judges named a five-person caretaker group led by Gürsel Tekin, a longtime party figure who once served as general secretary under former party chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. The other trustees are Zeki Şen, Hasan Babacan, Müjdat Gürbüz and Erkan Narsap. Tekin said he was surprised by the appointment but pledged to “take the party to a congress in unity” and to “help free it from the corridors of courthouses.”
The CHP, founded by the republic’s first leader, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, is Turkey’s oldest political party and the main rival of Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Its İstanbul branch is considered the most important provincial organization since the city of 16 million is not only the country’s economic engine but also a political stronghold for jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, Erdoğan’s strongest rival.
The ruling comes amid wider legal scrutiny of the party’s internal votes. Last week prosecutors filed an indictment against 10 party officials — including Çelik and two İstanbul district mayors — seeking prison sentences of up to three years over alleged irregularities in the same 2023 provincial congress. A separate court case is also examining whether the CHP’s national congress, which in November 2023 elected current chairman Özgür Özel and ended Kılıçdaroğlu’s long tenure, should be annulled.
Analysts say these parallel cases carry major political stakes. İmamoğlu openly supported Özel in the leadership contest, and critics argue the legal challenges are part of a broader effort to weaken the faction aligned with him. Kılıçdaroğlu, who lost the leadership vote, has not ruled out returning if courts overturn the party congress. Pro-government media and Erdoğan himself have questioned the legitimacy of the opposition’s internal elections.
The party’s central executive committee, chaired by Özel, called an emergency meeting for Tuesday evening to discuss how to respond. Ousted İstanbul chair Çelik said the organization had not yet received formal notification of the court’s decision.
