A Turkish court has backed this Thursday the dismissal of Ozgur Ozel, current leader of the main opposition party, the Republican People's Party (CHP). The judicial move opens the door to new internal tensions within the party.
The Ankara court of appeals has annulled the results of the congress in which Ozel was elected president, finding irregularities in the process, according to the Anatolia news agency. However, the CHP still has the possibility to file an appeal against this resolution.
The ruling comes after a first-instance court in Turkey initially considered that the lawsuit lacked sufficient basis. With Thursday's decision, Ozel's dismissal is enabled and the party leadership would fall to the former CHP president, Kemal Kilicdaroglu.
For years, the opposition, with the CHP as its main reference, has been denouncing that the Executive uses the judiciary to silence its detractors. Among the most cited cases is that of the former presidential candidate and former mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, due to his weight on the national political scene and his chances of challenging President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for power at the ballot box.
Imamoglu was dismissed in March 2025, imprisoned for alleged corruption offenses, and stripped of his university degree, a mandatory requirement to run as a presidential candidate. The leader, prosecuted in several cases, gained national political prominence after taking over as Mayor of Istanbul thanks to his victory in the 2019 municipal elections.