Tens of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets of Ankara on Sunday to protest a court case that could remove the leader of Turkey’s main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), just as the government completes a year-long legal crackdown on hundreds of its members. Participants waved Turkish flags and party banners while chanting calls for President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to step down.
The upcoming court ruling, scheduled for Monday, will decide whether to annul the 2023 CHP congress over alleged procedural irregularities. Observers warn that the decision could significantly reshape the party, unsettle financial markets, and potentially affect the timing of the next general election, set for 2028. There remains the possibility that the court could delay its decision.
CHP leader Ozgur Ozel, who was elected at the 2023 congress, addressed the rally, accusing the government of attempting to cling to power by undermining democratic principles and repressing opposition figures following recent local election victories. Ozel called for a snap general election and vowed to resist what he described as politically motivated attacks.
“This case is political. The accusations are slander. Our comrades are innocent. What is being done is a coup against the future president and the future government. We will resist, we will resist, we will resist,” Ozel declared. He added that the current government fears democracy and justice, knowing that fair elections would jeopardize their hold on power.
The Turkish government maintains that the judiciary operates independently and denies any political motivation behind the legal actions. Over the past year, authorities have detained more than 500 people, including 17 CHP mayors in Istanbul and other party-run municipalities, citing corruption investigations. Hundreds of party members remain jailed pending trial in cases tied to alleged corruption and terrorism links, including Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, Erdogan’s main political rival. Imamoglu’s March arrest triggered Turkey’s largest protests in a decade, prompting a brief but sharp decline in the lira and other financial assets.
At the Ankara rally, a letter from Imamoglu, read aloud to the crowd, accused the government of attempting to predetermine the next election by sidelining legitimate rivals and undermining democracy through judicial and political pressure. “The era of ‘I’ in this country will end, and the era of ‘we’ will begin. One person will lose, and everyone else will win,” Imamoglu wrote, drawing cheers from the audience who chanted his name in approval.
