, said Monday that delegates had begun collecting signatures to convene an extraordinary congress after a court decision annulled the party vote that brought him to power and reinstated former chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.){kind=link}
Özgür Özel, the ousted leader of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), said Monday that delegates had begun collecting signatures to convene an extraordinary congress after a court decision annulled the party vote that brought him to power and reinstated former chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
Özel made the remarks after attending a funeral ceremony at parliament for Yusuf Fevzi Arıcı, a former CHP lawmaker from Mersin.
He said the signature drive, previously announced by the party, began shortly after 8 a.m.
Özel said the first signature came from a Kayseri delegate who had opposed him at the previous congress and had strongly criticized him within the party. He said the move was symbolically important because it showed that even former intra-party opponents viewed the court ruling as an attack on the will of the congress.
He said all signatures from Rize, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s home province, were completed within 10 minutes and that signatures were being collected rapidly from across Turkey.
Özel added that CHP lawmakers had not yet joined the process, saying the party wanted to collect signatures from its organizational delegates first.
He said the signatures did not represent taking sides within the party but reflected a shared stance in support of the party, thanking delegates for their support.
Asked how many signatures were needed to call an extraordinary congress, Özel said the required number was “a little over 550.”
He said the number would be reached quickly but that the party wanted to submit its application for the congress without delay and with the highest possible number of signatures.
Özel said it was damaging for the CHP to be governed without an internal election result, saying it was unacceptable for a party so closely identified with Turkey’s republican political tradition to be led without a vote. The CHP, Turkey’s oldest political party, was established by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of modern Turkey, and has long identified itself with the country’s republican and secular traditions.
He also urged CHP members and elected officials not to resign in protest of the court decision, warning that such reactions could deepen public anger toward politics as an institution. Özel added the party did not consider it right for any elected official or member to resign, saying the call applied to mayors, lawmakers, city council members and provincial council members.
He also called on CHP voters to turn out in upcoming local elections in six towns, saying he would campaign in Gümüşhane, Tokat and Ürgüp ahead of the June 7 vote.
Turkey’s Supreme Election Council (YSK) decided in April that by-elections would be held in six settlements that recently gained town status. Voters in Yolüstü and Çevrecik in Tokat’s Reşadiye district, Bağtaşı in Tokat’s Almus district, Kuşçu in Tokat’s Yeşilyurt district, Tekke in Gümüşhane and Mustafapaşa in Nevşehir’s Ürgüp district will elect mayors and city council members.
Özel warned against calls to boycott the ballot box in protest of the court ruling, describing such arguments as “very dangerous.” He said CHP supporters should go to the polls and stand by the party, adding that the CHP remained united behind its organization.
Asked whether the interim measure imposed by the court would prevent an extraordinary congress, Özel said leading public law scholars had signed a joint text arguing that it would not. According to Özel, the scholars said the interim measure did not prevent the party from going to congress and that those who returned to office under the measure should be treated as having a mandate to call a congress as soon as possible.
The leadership crisis began on May 21, when the 36th Civil Chamber of the Ankara Regional Court of Justice annulled the CHP’s 38th Ordinary Congress, where Özel defeated Kılıçdaroğlu in November 2023 and became party chairman.
The court ruled that the congress was legally invalid and ordered Kılıçdaroğlu and the party bodies elected under his leadership to return to office as an interim measure. The ruling also meant the temporary removal of Özel and the current party administration.
The CHP has denied allegations of irregularities in the 2023 leadership vote and says the case is part of a broader judicial campaign to weaken the party after its major gains in the March 2024 local elections.
The crisis has also attracted international attention. Socialist International, the global alliance of socialist, social democratic and labor parties, said last week it would continue to recognize Özel as the CHP’s legitimate leader and called on Kılıçdaroğlu to convene an immediate extraordinary congress that is transparent, democratic and inclusive.
Kılıçdaroğlu led the CHP from 2010 until 2023, when he lost the leadership to Özel after his defeat to Erdoğan in that year’s presidential election. Özel later led the party to its strongest local election result in decades in 2024.
The leadership dispute is unfolding alongside a wider crackdown on the CHP, with more than 20 of its mayors and hundreds of municipal officials detained or arrested in investigations the party says are politically motivated.
İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, Erdoğan’s most prominent political rival and the CHP’s presidential candidate, was detained in March 2025 on corruption and terrorism-related charges that he denies.