 leader Özgür Özel resigned en masse from the party’s top decision-making body on Thursday in an attempt to force an extraordinary congress, escalating a leadership crisis triggered by a court ruling that reinstated former chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the Anka news agency reported.){kind=link}
Allies of ousted main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Özgür Özel resigned en masse from the party’s top decision-making body on Thursday in an attempt to force an extraordinary congress, escalating a leadership crisis triggered by a court ruling that reinstated former chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the Anka news agency reported.
The resignations mark a new effort by Özel’s supporters to reclaim control of Turkey’s largest opposition party through an internal vote, after a controversial court ruling last month created a dual-power structure in which Kılıçdaroğlu controls party headquarters while Özel retains the support of most CHP lawmakers.
Twenty-eight members of the CHP’s Party Council resigned shortly before a meeting called by Kılıçdaroğlu, reducing the number of members in the body from 57 to 29, according to a statement from CHP İstanbul lawmaker Zeynel Emre, an ally of Özel.
Özel’s supporters say the resignations brought the Party Council below the two-thirds threshold required under the party bylaws, making it mandatory for the CHP to convene an extraordinary congress within 45 days.
They also claim that both the Party Council and the Central Executive Board (MYK) elected from within it have legally ceased to function.
“This is now a matter of law. Failure to convene the congress from this point on is a crime,” Emre told reporters in parliament on Thursday.
He said those who continue to act as the party leadership despite the resignations could be committing the offense of unlawfully assuming office, adding that the remaining Party Council members had no authority other than to take the party to an extraordinary congress.
Kılıçdaroğlu supporters reject that argument, saying the court ruling that reinstated the former chairman prevents the party from holding an extraordinary congress while the legal process continues.
CHP spokesman Müslim Sarı, who was appointed by Kılıçdaroğlu after the court ruling, said after the meeting that the Party Council would continue with the members who remained and that “the number is not important.”
He claimed that the bylaw provision requiring a congress when two-thirds of council seats become vacant could not be applied under the current circumstances, saying an attempt to render the Party Council dysfunctional would be contrary to the court ruling.
According to Sarı, an extraordinary congress cannot be held because it is unclear when the court injunction linked to the annulment ruling would become final.
However, he said Kılıçdaroğlu’s leadership team will instead hold a MYK meeting on Friday and announce a roadmap for an ordinary congress.
The resignations came a day after nine lawmakers close to Özel, including four Party Council members, were referred to the party’s disciplinary board with a request for their expulsion.
Özel’s side described the move as an attempt to change the balance of power in the council ahead of Thursday’s meeting.
The Party Council is the CHP’s highest decision-making body after the congress and has authority over party strategy, candidate lists and major organizational decisions.
The resignations also came two days after Özel and Kılıçdaroğlu held rival meetings in Ankara, exposing a deepening dual-power crisis inside Turkey’s largest opposition party.
Özel addressed CHP lawmakers in parliament as the party’s parliamentary group chairman, while Kılıçdaroğlu, reinstated as party chairman by the controversial court ruling, held a separate meeting at CHP headquarters on Tuesday.
The CHP has been in turmoil since the 36th Civil Chamber of the Ankara Regional Court of Justice on May 21 annulled the party’s 38th Ordinary Congress, held in November 2023, when Özel defeated Kılıçdaroğlu and became chairman.
The court ruling restored Kılıçdaroğlu and his team to the party leadership, while Özel was later elected CHP parliamentary group chairman by the party’s lawmakers.
Kılıçdaroğlu was expected to announce a timetable for an ordinary congress at Thursday’s Party Council meeting, while Özel’s supporters are pressing for an extraordinary congress they say is required under the party bylaws after the mass resignations.
Legal experts critical of the court ruling have argued that a new congress is the only legitimate way to resolve the crisis.
In a joint statement, 31 constitutional and public law scholars said the court injunction in the CHP case did not prevent the party from holding a new congress and described a congress as the only legitimate way out of the legal deadlock.
Emre also called on the Supreme Court of Appeals to rule on the case before the judicial recess begins on July 20, saying a delay could deepen the crisis further.
The CHP became Turkey’s leading party in the March 2024 local elections, delivering President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) its worst electoral defeat since coming to power.
Since then, CHP-run municipalities have faced a series of investigations and detentions, while İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, widely seen as Erdoğan’s strongest potential rival, is in jail. The government says the judiciary acts independently.
Critics and rights groups have described the pressure on the CHP as part of a broader crackdown on Turkey’s main opposition, while the government says the courts act independently.