 who agreed to serve on a court-appointed caretaker board overseeing its #İstanbul branch has been expelled from the party.){kind=link}
Main opposition leader Özgür Özel announced on Tuesday that a longtime figure in the Republican People’s Party (CHP) who agreed to serve on a court-appointed caretaker board overseeing its İstanbul branch has been expelled from the party.
The 45th Civil Court of First Instance on Tuesday annulled the October 2023 provincial congress of the 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. 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 halls of courthouses.”
Özel told Halk TV later in the day that Çelik remains the party’s legitimate İstanbul chair, denouncing the court’s intervention as unlawful. He said Tekin had been referred to the disciplinary board and expelled, adding that “anyone else who chooses the same path will also be expelled.”
The CHP leader said the party would challenge the measure at the Constitutional Court, describing the case as “the 10th attempt” to annul the İstanbul provincial congress after nine earlier courts reportedly had rejected similar requests.
The CHP, founded by the republic’s first leader, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, is Turkey’s oldest political party and the main rival of President Recep Tayyip 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 developments come 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.