The court-ordered replacement of the Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) İstanbul leadership with a caretaker board issued Tuesday has drawn sharp criticism from opposition figures, while pro-government commentators cast it as a sign that the party’s national leadership could also be removed in a September 15 hearing on the validity of its 2023 leadership vote, Turkish Minute reported.
The CHP said the ruling annuls its October 2023 İstanbul provincial congress, dismisses provincial chair Özgür Çelik and his board and suspends 196 delegates, with a five-member caretaker team taking charge. The court named Gürsel Tekin, a veteran party figure, along with Zeki Şen, Hasan Babacan, Müjdat Gürbüz and Erkan Narsap as members of the team.
CHP leader Özgür Özel told supporters at provincial headquarters that the party does not recognize the decision. He called it a seizure of authority and said Çelik remains in office while the party pursues appeals.
Jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, the opposition’s most prominent elected figure, said the ruling targets Turkey’s democracy and urged supporters to resist in court.
Justice Minister Yılmaz Tunç said the decision is an interim measure to prevent harm during the legal process and does not constitute a final judgment.
The caretaker move places a temporary board over a party unit until a new internal vote. Turkey has used similar trusteeships to take control of opposition-run municipalities, especially in the Kurdish southeast.
Pro-government commentators framed the İstanbul ruling as a test run for a separate case against the CHP’s national congress that elected Özel in November 2023. Columnists Cem Küçük and Abdulkadir Selvi said they expect a ruling of “absolute nullity,” a legal term in Turkey that would void the national vote and force a court-appointed committee to oversee a new leadership contest. A hearing in that case is also scheduled for September 15.
European lawmaker Nacho Sánchez Amor wrote that annulling the İstanbul vote appears to prepare the groundwork for overturning the national congress, which he said would amount to a fatal blow to multiparty democracy in Turkey.
Inside Turkey reactions split along party lines. CHP lawmakers called the ruling a blow to voters and to internal party sovereignty. The pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) said the ruling is undemocratic and unconstitutional, asserting that interventions into party votes would keep internal elections in limbo.
The Workers’ Party of Turkey said the government now seeks political outcomes in courthouses rather than at the ballot box.
Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, a key ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said the CHP has fallen into a “political coma.”
The governing Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) spokesman, Ömer Çelik, said the party is following the appeals process and did not discuss the matter in its own leadership meeting.
The lawsuit that produced the İstanbul decision alleged venue and procedural violations at the October 2023 provincial congress.
Plaintiffs said organizers notified the Sarıyer district election board but held the vote in Beyoğlu at the Haliç Congress Center, which they argued violated election law and party rules. They also cited a prosecutor’s investigation and media recordings that purported to show efforts to sway delegates with money, gifts and promises of jobs.
The petition asked the court to suspend all decisions of that congress, remove the elected board and either reinstate the previous board or appoint a temporary board, and to halt parts of the CHP’s national congress calendar.
Separately, prosecutors filed criminal charges against 10 CHP figures tied to the same 2023 provincial congress, including Çelik and two district mayors, seeking prison sentences of up to three years for alleged vote manipulation.
The CHP is Turkey’s oldest political party. It was founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the republic’s first leader. Control of the İstanbul branch is strategic because the city of more than 16 million drives the country’s economy and serves as the main base for İmamoğlu, Erdoğan’s strongest rival who was arrested on corruption charges in March.
Tekin, the caretaker board’s chair, is a former CHP general secretary who is facing expulsion proceedings by the current leadership after the court named him to the temporary role. Tekin said he learned of the appointment from news reports and said he aims to take the party to a new vote in unity.
Özel said no CHP member can take part in what he called a scheme, and he announced steps to expel those who accept the caretaker assignments.
The party’s legal team plans to seek a stay and to challenge the İstanbul order on grounds of jurisdiction and timing. Özel warned that allowing first-instance civil courts to overrule certified election results could also call other election certificates into question, a reference to the Supreme Election Council’s final say over Turkish elections.
