Ousted Turkish opposition leader's team resigns to trigger chairman vote

ANKARA - The team of the ousted leader of Turkey's main opposition, Ozgur Ozel, has resigned from the party's assembly, his office said on Thursday, adding the move should legally trigger an extraordinary congress to re-elect a chairman.

A Turkish court last month annulled the Republican People's Party's (CHP) 2023 congress that elected Ozel as chairman, citing irregularities. It also reinstated to the post Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the CHP's divisive former leader who lost to President Tayyip Erdogan in the 2023 presidential election.

The court's decision, described by critics as politically motivated amid an unprecedented legal crackdown on the CHP, rattled financial markets and fuelled concerns about democracy and the rule of law in Turkey.

Prior to the court ruling, the CHP was running roughly even with Erdogan's Islamic-rooted and conservative ruling AK Party.

The opposition's crisis could boost Erdogan's prospects of extending his more than two-decade rule of NATO-member Turkey in an election scheduled to be held by 2028, but which analysts say could come earlier if the government seeks to take advantage of the CHP strife.

RIVALRY BETWEEN APPOINTED AND OUSTED LEADERS

Kilicdaroglu has said he would purge the CHP of corruption, referring to cases involving CHP-run municipalities. The ousted leadership denies the graft allegations, saying they amount to a politically motivated and anti-democratic "coup".

The resignations come a day after Kilicidaroglu asked for the expulsion of nine CHP members loyal to Ozel, including four in the assembly. He will chair a meeting of the party assembly on Thursday.

In a statement, Ozel's office said 28 members from the 57-member assembly had resigned, thus amounting to the fall of the party assembly and legally mandating a congress within 45 days.

Zeynel Emre, a spokesperson for Ozel, said it would now be a crime for the congress not to be convened, as the party assembly and central executive committee no longer have the minimum number of members.

(Reporting by Ece Toksabay, Tuvan Gumrukcu, and Ezgi Erkoyun; Editing by Jonathan Spicer, Alexandra Hudson)

Copyright Reuters or USA Today Network via Reuters Connect.

This story was originally published June 11, 2026 at 2:05 AM.