ISTANBUL (AP) — Massive crowds of demonstrators filled Turkey’s capital city Saturday, rallying behind the ousted chief of the nation’s primary opposition political organization.
A court directive issued May 21 stripped Ozgur Ozel of his leadership position within the Republican People’s Party, known as CHP. Numerous observers view this judicial action as a politically driven effort to weaken opposition forces.
Demonstrators initially assembled at Guven Park in Turkey’s capital center to listen as Ozel delivered remarks criticizing his dismissal. The crowd then accompanied him on an unplanned procession to the memorial site of Turkey’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.
“They are attempting to replace the CHP’s elected chairman and appoint a trustee,” Ozel told supporters. “Today is the day to restart our march to power. I wish this were an internal party matter. This is not an internal matter for the CHP. This is a matter between (President) Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the nation.”
The appellate court’s decision reversed a 2023 party convention ballot that installed Ozel as CHP chief. The judicial ruling reinstated his former colleague, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, generating anger among party loyalists.
The 51-year-old Ozel took over from the 77-year-old Kilicdaroglu following 13 years of largely unsuccessful resistance to Erdogan.
Ozel has characterized the legal proceedings, which focused on supposed voting violations during the convention, as the most recent judicial assault on the CHP. Legal proceedings nationwide, primarily alleging financial misconduct in CHP-controlled local governments, have resulted in hundreds of elected representatives and party activists being arrested.
Government officials maintain that Turkey’s judicial system operates without bias and functions free from political influence.
While demonstrators assembled at Guven Park, Kilicdaroglu conducted a competing event at CHP offices in Ankara, which law enforcement officers raided the previous Sunday to eject Ozel and his allies.
Speaking to a significantly smaller audience, Kilicdaroglu criticized the former party leadership for allowing extensive financial misconduct.
The CHP currently matches the governing Justice and Development Party, or AKP, in recent polling data, and despite the next scheduled election occurring in 2028, many anticipate Erdogan will seek earlier voting.
Ozel inflicted significant damage on the AKP during 2024 local elections, consolidating the opposition’s control over major urban centers it had captured five years prior, including Istanbul and Ankara.
The CHP mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, has become the most probable opponent to Erdogan, who has governed Turkey since 2003, in the upcoming presidential contest. However, he has been incarcerated since March of last year while confronting multiple criminal proceedings that could result in decades of imprisonment.
