Turkish opposition head remains in office for the time being

Procedure for party congress

Turkish opposition head remains in office for the time being

A court decision about the future of the largest opposition party was eagerly awaited in Turkey. This has now been postponed. The pressure remains.

The head of the largest Turkish opposition party Chp, Özgür Özel, remains in office for the time being. A court in Ankara postponed the decision on the cancellation of the party congress of 2023 – this also postpones the decision on the future of the opposition head. The state news agency Anadolu reported that the court had requested further documents. The process will continue on October 24th.

The procedure deals with the question of whether delegates were bribed to give their voice for Özel. The CHP party leadership rejects the allegations. If Özel is replaced by an administrator, the observer would initiate the end of an independent opposition in Turkey.

The CHP has been under pressure for months and sees itself as the victim of a political campaign by the government under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Özel had replaced the long -time and unsuccessful former party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu two years ago at the top and reorganized the party. In the local elections last year, this paid off for the CHP – it drove a surprising success and won most mayoral offices in the country.

Since then, numerous opposition mayors have been arrested in the course of terrorist and corruption investigation, including the Istanbul Mayor and Erdogan-Rival Ekrem Imamoglu. That triggered mass protests. The CHP politician was deposed as mayor after his arrest and has been in prison for half a year – he is considered a promising challenger of Erdogan in future elections.

Numerous opposition politicians were once again arrested on Saturday, including the CHP mayor of the Istanbul district of Bayrampasa. On Sunday evening, tens of thousands in Ankara protested against the procedure against the opposition and to support Özels.