The Turkish court has dismissed the leader of the main opposition party | Political Affairs

An Ankara court will overturn the results of the presidential election won by Republican People’s Party leader Ozgur Ozel.

A Turkish court has canceled the 2023 election of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in a major move against the country’s opposition parties.

This is the latest move by the CHP, Turkey’s oldest political party which defeated President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party in 2024 local elections and has been surging in the polls.

Thursday’s ruling annulled the results of the leadership election that brought in the party’s leader Ozgur Ozel, while the court named the party’s former leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu – who lost the election to Ozel – as the interim leader.

The case was seen as a test of Turkey’s stability between democracy and rising power, and the decision could leave the opposition in disarray and a possible confrontation. It could also boost Erdogan’s chances of extending his decade-long rule of a major NATO country and emerging market economy.

The CHP dismissed the decision as an “attempted coup”, while the government – which has rejected criticism that it uses the courts to target political opponents – said it boosted Turkish people’s faith in the rule of law.

The nationalist and centrist CHP, which is running nearly even with Erdogan’s conservative and partisan AK Party in the polls, has also faced its first crackdown since 2024, when hundreds of its members and elected officials were arrested for corruption that the party denies.

One of those jailed for more than a year is Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, Erdogan’s arch-rival and CHP candidate in the 2028 presidential election, but that could come next year.

Ozel, the CHP’s military chairman, who rose to prominence after Imamoglu’s arrest, gathered party leaders to discuss the court ruling as demonstrations were planned.

Ali Mahir Basarir, deputy chairman of the CHP’s parliamentary group, told Reuters that the decision was “an attempt to seize power (and) fight against the will of 86 million people”. Those behind it “will be charged before the courts”, he said.

Turkey’s Borsa Istanbul .XU100 fell 6 percent in response, triggering a regional stock market rally, as government bonds fell.

The central bank sold billions of dollars in forex to cushion the fall, four traders said.

In March of last year, Imamoglu’s impeachment led to a sell-off that sent inflation expectations soaring and temporarily reversed the pace of rate cuts. Investors said the latest political upheaval will be dominated by similar risks.

The Ankara court’s ruling overturned a ruling last year by the first court that declared the case involving the CHP’s 2023 congress null and void.

The pro-Kurdish DEM Party (Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party), the third largest in the parliament, called the court decision a “black blow” to Turkish democracy.

The restored CHP leader, Kilicdaroglu, who has disappeared from the public eye since losing elections three years ago, called for calm and rationality, saying he hoped Turkiye would benefit from it.