Turkey’s CHP rallies behind Özel while Erdogan tightens grip

Turkey’s main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), re-elected Özgür Özel as its leader on Sunday during an extraordinary congress in Ankara, as the party faces mounting legal challenges and waves of arrests targeting its members.

The congress came as Özel confronts a potentially damaging court case seeking to annul his leadership. The trial, which held its second hearing on Monday, challenges the results of the November 2023 party congress that elected him, citing alleged electoral fraud.

In Sunday’s vote, delegates delivered a resounding endorsement of Özel: he secured all 835 valid ballots, with 82 invalid votes recorded. Running unopposed, his re-election could undermine the legal basis of the ongoing trial. The next court hearing is scheduled for October 24.

“The party is under attack, and they are trying every possible method,” Özel told reporters after the vote. He added that legal experts and party officials are working to counter the lawsuits: “With the holding of this congress, all their legal arguments are swept aside.”

Beyond the leadership vote, the CHP congress also sought to chart a political strategy for the future as the party braces for growing pressure from the ruling authorities.

Özel, who took over the party in November 2023 following its defeat in the presidential elections six months earlier, led the CHP to a sweeping victory in the March 2024 local elections. That triumph dealt a major blow to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), which has ruled since 2002.

But the CHP has since been the target of intensified judicial and political pressure. The most dramatic case came in March, when Istanbul’s popular mayor Ekrem Imamoglu—seen as the CHP’s likely candidate for the 2028 presidential election—was imprisoned on corruption charges he strongly denies. 

His arrest provoked widespread international criticism and the largest wave of domestic protests in over a decade.

A Party Under Pressure

On September 2, a court dismissed Istanbul CHP branch leader Özgür Celik and annulled the results of the October 2023 provincial congress that had elected him along with 195 other delegates. 

The Istanbul branch is now set to hold its own extraordinary congress on Wednesday to re-elect its leadership.

With its leadership reaffirmed but its members under mounting legal pressure, the CHP faces a turbulent path as it positions itself as the main challenger to Erdogan ahead of the 2028 presidential race.