Turkish opposition vows to fight court ruling ousting leaders, boosting Erdogan

Turkish opposition leader Özgür Özel has vowed to fight a court ruling that removed him and fellow party leaders, in the latest legal move that helps cement President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s grip on power.

The appeals court declared the 2023 leadership election in Özel’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) null and void, prompting thousands of demonstrators to gather outside party headquarters in Ankara.

“We are experiencing a dark day for Turkish democracy,” Özel said, vowing to challenge the ruling in the courts and with Turkey’s supreme election council (YSK).

Justice Minister Akin Gürlek insisted the ruling “reinforces our citizens’ trust in democracy.”

Until Gürlek was appointed justice minister by Erdogan earlier this year, he was the chief prosecutor in Istanbul who spearheaded investigations targeting the opposition, particularly the city’s highly popular mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu.

Imamoglu, still considered Erdogan’s biggest political rival, has been in jail for over a year, and Gürlek accused him of corruption offenses carrying sentences exceeding 2,000 years.

The supreme election council met Friday to hear the opposition party’s objection to the court’s decision.

In its ruling Thursday, the appeals court in Ankara overturned a 2025 ruling by a lower court that had thrown out allegations of vote buying during the CHP primary that made Özel opposition leader.

The appeals court decided Özel should be replaced by Kemal Kilicdaroğlu, a 77-year-old party veteran who lost to Erdogan in the 2023 presidential election and was subsequently voted out as party leader.

The ruling also means the party’s entire executive is replaced, and decisions it has made are no longer recognized.

BBC Turkish correspondent Ayşe Sayin said the ruling came as a shock at CHP headquarters, with some members moved to tears. She described tense moments when some party members removed a photo of Kilicdaroğlu from the wall, while others chanted that the former leader was a “traitor.”

Turkey’s stock market plummeted 6% late Thursday before recovering some of that ground Friday morning.

Erdogan has led Turkey since 2003, as prime minister and then as president, and Özel has accused Erdogan’s AK Party of pursuing a strategy to “eliminate its rivals.”

The 72-year-old leader can only run for president again if he calls early elections before 2028 or changes the constitution.

The CHP leader bitterly condemned Thursday’s court ruling as a “judicial coup,” and the party’s executive rejected the court’s authority.

“These coup plotters don’t come with tanks, cannons, rifles or camouflage; these coup plotters come in judges’ and prosecutors’ robes,” Özel said.

He also rejected speculation that the party would split and that he would head a breakaway party: “Tenants leave, homeowners are to stay.”

However, any legal action challenging the ruling in Turkey’s Court of Cassation is expected to drag on. There are suggestions Özel and his supporters may have to consider forming another party to contest the next election.

Defiant messages also came from two of the CHP’s most popular figures.

Istanbul’s jailed and suspended mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, posted a message on social media calling on Turks to “stand together for their country.”

Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavaş said the court ruling aimed to divide Turkey’s biggest opposition party and render it ineffective. He warned that with the economy flagging, Turkish political leaders might move toward snap elections in the coming period.

In a separate development Friday, Erdogan ordered the closure of Istanbul’s independent Bilgi University, which has some 22,000 students from home and abroad.

Law professor Yaman Akdeniz said a university built up over 30 years had been effectively shut down overnight: “An institution where I’ve taught for 15 years, one we’ve nurtured alongside thousands of young people, is being disregarded.”

Turkey’s Council of Higher Education said it was taking steps to ensure current students would not suffer hardship.