The leadership team of Özgür Özel, the ousted head of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), warned Wednesday that the party must hold a congress by July 25, saying failure to do so could put its legal existence at risk, Turkish Minute reported.
Zeynel Emre, spokesman for the CHP administration loyal to Özel, accused the judiciary under President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) of preparing a plan to shut down the party, which was established by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey.
“The CHP must hold a congress by July 25, 2026. This is a matter of existence,” Emre told reporters after a meeting of Özel’s Central Executive Board at parliament. “The AKP judiciary is planning to shut down our father’s house.”
The warning came after a regional appeals court last month declared the CHP’s 2023 party congress null and void, temporarily removed Özel and his leadership from office and reinstated former party chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. The ruling has triggered a power struggle inside Turkey’s oldest political party and intensified opposition claims that Erdoğan is trying to reshape his main rival through the courts.
Emre said Özel’s camp aimed to collect signatures from 1,000 party delegates to force an extraordinary congress. He argued that neither courts nor the Supreme Election Council, Turkey’s top election authority, had the power to erase the party’s bylaws or override the delegates’ right to call a congress.
“Some say there is an injunction and therefore a congress cannot be held. Where is this written?” Emre asked. “The ruling did not change our bylaws.”
Emre also challenged the legitimacy of Kılıçdaroğlu’s newly announced party leadership, saying a new Central Executive Board could be appointed only through a decision by the party assembly under CHP rules.
“This current Central Executive Board is unlawful,” he said.
The CHP won the largest share of the vote in Turkey’s March 2024 local elections, defeating the AKP in major cities including İstanbul and Ankara. Since then, the party has faced court cases, investigations and arrests targeting opposition municipalities, which CHP officials describe as a campaign to weaken the party before the next general election.
