A court in Turkey has removed the leader of an opposition party from office – Bloomberg
The Ankara Court of Appeals issued a landmark ruling, overturning the results of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) convention held in 2023. This automatically annulled the election of Özgür Özel as leader of the country’s main opposition party and reinstated former leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and his team.
Bloomberg reports on this. The court’s intervention triggered panic in financial markets: Turkish stocks plummeted, and the main Borsa Istanbul 100 index closed down 6.1%, forcing an automatic halt to trading across the entire market due to the activation of a circuit breaker. Meanwhile, the exchange rate of the Turkish lira remained relatively stable.
Özely’s removal could seriously undermine the opposition’s internal unity ahead of the upcoming presidential election scheduled for 2028 and potentially strengthen the position of incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Opposition figures have already called the decision politically motivated, as Kılıçdaroğlu’s return could provoke a split within the CHP and hinder efforts to defend the imprisoned mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem İmamoğlu—a key rival of the current government. The party is currently preparing an official appeal of the court’s verdict.
This precedent is a continuation of widespread pressure on the Republicans following their resounding victory in the 2024 municipal elections. In recent months, the authorities have detained the mayor of Bursa on corruption charges and launched an investigation against the popular mayor of Ankara, Mansur Yavaş, who is also considered a strong potential presidential candidate. In addition, back in September, a court completely removed the entire leadership of the party’s Istanbul branch from office, a move that analysts say is destabilizing the sentiment of foreign investors and heightening concerns about the state of democracy in Turkey.
Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu was sentenced to one year and eight months in prison for allegedly “threatening” the Istanbul chief prosecutor.
In Istanbul, charges have been filed against Mayor Imamoglu carrying a potential sentence of 2,352 years in prison.
