An Ankara court has annulled the 2023 leadership election of Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), removing current party head Özgür Özel and reinstating former chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu as interim leader. The ruling, issued on Thursday, was immediately denounced by the CHP as an "attempted coup carried out through the judiciary" and triggered a sharp selloff on Istanbul's BIST 100 stock exchange, which fell more than 6%, prompting the central bank to sell billions of dollars in foreign exchange to stabilise markets.
The case centred on allegations of vote-buying at the CHP's November 2023 congress, where Özel defeated Kılıçdaroğlu for the party leadership. Prosecutors alleged Özel secured his election by pressuring delegates with promises of jobs and other benefits. An Ankara court of first instance had previously dismissed the case as lacking substance, but a higher court overturned that decision and found in favour of the prosecutors. The CHP has flatly denied all charges, insisting the case is politically motivated. Özel announced he would appeal, saying he expected the appeals court to "save Turkey from a disaster".
The ruling marks a historic first: it is the first time a Turkish court has removed the leadership of a political party — and the party in question is the CHP, the secular, centre-left movement founded alongside the Turkish Republic itself. The decision lands amid what critics describe as a sustained judicial crackdown on the opposition. Since 2024, hundreds of CHP members and elected officials have been detained on corruption charges the party denies. Most prominent among those imprisoned is Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, who has been held for more than a year and faces charges ranging from graft to espionage and alleged terror ties — charges he says are fabricated. İmamoğlu is the CHP's designated presidential candidate for an election due by 2028, though it could be called earlier.
The CHP has been a growing political force, having inflicted on President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ruling AK Party its first electoral defeat in nearly 22 years in the 2024 local elections. Polls had shown the two parties running roughly even nationally. Kılıçdaroğlu, now 77, who lost the 2023 presidential election to Erdoğan and had largely faded from public life, called for calm and common sense following his court-ordered reinstatement. The pro-Kurdish DEM Party, parliament's third-largest force, called the ruling a "black stain" on Turkish democracy, while the government said it reinforced public faith in the rule of law.
The ruling is widely seen as a significant escalation in the pressure on Turkey's opposition ahead of the next presidential contest. Analysts note that political instability of this kind carries economic risks: İmamoğlu's arrest last year triggered a market selloff that pushed inflation expectations higher and weakened the Turkish lira. Thursday's stock market reaction suggests investors are already pricing in similar dangers. With the CHP's leadership now in legal limbo and its most prominent figures either imprisoned or facing trial, the path for a credible electoral challenge to Erdoğan's more than two-decade hold on power has narrowed considerably.