Court Annuls CHP Congress, Orders Kılıçdaroğlu-Era Leadership Back
By Bosphorus News Türkiye Desk
A Turkish appeals court has annulled the 2023 congress of the main opposition Republican People's Party, CHP, that brought Özgür Özel to power, ordering Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and the party organs in place before that congress to take over the leadership pending finalisation of the ruling.
The Ankara Regional Court of Appeal's 36th Civil Chamber ruled that the CHP's 38th Ordinary Elective Congress, held on November 4-5, 2023, was legally void on grounds of "absolute nullity," Anadolu Agency reported on May 21. The decision removes Özel, the party's Central Executive Board, Party Assembly and High Disciplinary Board from office as an interim measure while the legal process continues.
The court ordered Kılıçdaroğlu and the CHP organs elected before the 38th congress to assume the party leadership until the ruling becomes final. The decision was taken unanimously and can be appealed to the Court of Cassation within two weeks, a detail that keeps the case open but immediately throws Türkiye's main opposition party into a leadership crisis.
CHP's Central Executive Board convened an extraordinary meeting at Özel's call after the ruling, Anadolu Agency reported, underlining the speed with which the court decision moved from a legal file into the party's chain of command.
The 2023 congress had marked one of the most consequential internal shifts in CHP history. Özel defeated Kılıçdaroğlu after the opposition's loss in the 2023 presidential election, ending Kılıçdaroğlu's long leadership and opening a new phase in which Özel worked closely with Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu's political camp.
The ruling does not stop at the leadership vote. Anadolu Agency said the court also declared all ordinary and extraordinary congresses held after the November 2023 convention, together with the decisions taken by those party organs, legally void. It also annulled the CHP Istanbul Provincial Congress held on October 8, 2023, and all decisions made at that congress.
That wider scope gives the case direct significance for the party's post-2023 structure. The CHP's "change" leadership was not only built around Özel's chairmanship. It also depended on new party organs, provincial alignments and internal balances that followed the congress. The court's decision now places that entire architecture under legal suspension.
Reuters framed the ruling as the latest major blow to the Turkish opposition, noting that the CHP has already faced intense legal pressure over the past year. Earlier court proceedings had targeted the Istanbul provincial branch, while other cases and investigations have placed senior opposition figures under sustained legal and political pressure.
The case stems from allegations of irregularities during the CHP's 38th congress. The party has rejected accusations against its internal process and has previously described similar legal moves as politically motivated attempts to weaken the opposition. The government has maintained that Türkiye's judiciary acts independently.
The immediate result is a rare dual-authority moment inside Türkiye's largest opposition party. Özel remains the political face of the CHP's post-2023 renewal camp, while the court has ordered the Kılıçdaroğlu-era leadership back into the party's formal structure pending finalisation of the ruling.
The decision arrives at a critical point for the opposition. CHP's 2023 leadership change was designed to move the party beyond the defeat of that year's presidential race and prepare a broader challenge to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ruling bloc. A court-ordered reversal of that leadership line now turns the party's internal legitimacy into a national political question.
Until the appeal process is resolved, the CHP faces a compressed crisis on three fronts: who controls the party headquarters, which party organs have legal authority, and how the opposition can maintain a coherent electoral strategy while its leadership structure is being contested through the courts.