Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) is headed for a new leadership fight after supporters of ousted party chairman Özgür Özel submitted petitions Wednesday calling for an extraordinary congress to challenge former leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who was reinstated by a court ruling in May, Turkish Minute reported, citing Agence France-Presse.
An Ankara court annulled the CHP’s 2023 leadership election, citing alleged vote-buying, and ordered Kılıçdaroğlu, who had lost the chairmanship to Özel at that congress, to return as party leader.
The ruling triggered protests from the CHP, which has gained support in opinion polls since defeating President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the 2024 local elections. Police later entered the party’s headquarters in Ankara amid tensions over the court decision.
Özel, a vocal critic of Erdoğan, has rejected the ruling and called for an extraordinary congress, saying the party cannot be run by a leadership imposed through the courts.
More than 800 CHP delegates had submitted petitions by Wednesday demanding a congress to elect a party leader, a party source told Agence France-Presse.
The petitions were delivered to CHP headquarters in Ankara and meet the threshold required under party bylaws to convene an extraordinary congress within 45 days.
Political observers say Kılıçdaroğlu, who faced heavy criticism after a series of election losses, is likely to try to delay the congress and block any challenge to his leadership.
The court ruling has thrown Turkey’s oldest political party into one of the deepest leadership crises in its history.
Kılıçdaroğlu led the CHP for more than a decade before being voted out at the 2023 congress, five months after losing to Erdoğan in a closely contested presidential election.
The CHP says the court ruling and separate investigations targeting its mayors and municipal officials are part of a government-backed effort to weaken the opposition. The government denies political interference and says the judiciary acts independently.
