Türkiye's main opposition party has spent two months under a court ruling that removed its elected leader, and this week the country's highest court of appeals left the question of whether that ruling stands unanswered until the autumn. In the gap, the removed chairman, Özgür Özel, is preparing to build something of his own.
Key developments.
- The case is delayed. The file reached the Court of Cassation on 17 July, and with the judicial recess beginning on 20 July, a final decision is now expected only after 1 September, according to Turkish reports. The ruling that removed Özel is therefore not final.
- Özel is preparing a new party, as a fallback. He says preparations are under way for a possible new party if his legal challenges fail, with a formal step possible by late July or early August.
- Immunity files are at parliament. Motions to lift the parliamentary immunity of seven deputies, Özel among them, have been referred to a joint committee. The governing party says stripping them is not on the agenda.
- Kılıçdaroğlu goes to parliament. The court-reinstated chairman is due to meet the parliament speaker on 21 July, as part of consultations with party leaders.
What the courts decided
On 21 May 2026, an Ankara appeals court annulled the Republican People's Party (CHP) congress of November 2023 on grounds of absolute nullity, known in Turkish as mutlak butlan. The court ordered the elected chairman, Özel, and the party's executive board provisionally replaced by his predecessor, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, and the board that had held office before the congress, according to the Associated Press and Anadolu Ajansı.
The lawsuits behind the case alleged vote-buying and irregularities at the congress that elected Özel. A lower court had rejected those claims, and the appeals court overturned that earlier verdict, the AP reported. Kılıçdaroğlu, who led the CHP for 13 years before Özel, called on members to stay calm.
Where the case stands now
The CHP challenged the ruling at the Court of Cassation, Türkiye's highest court of appeals. The file reached the court on 17 July, Turkish outlets reported, and the annual judicial recess began on 20 July before the court took it up, leaving a final decision to the autumn. A CHP deputy parliamentary group chair, Murat Emir, said the delay was deliberate and questioned the independence of the courts handling it.
Because the top court has not ruled, Özel's removal remains provisional. Both men claim the leadership by a different measure: Özel by the 2023 congress vote, Kılıçdaroğlu by the appeals-court order that annulled it. Özel also kept a base in parliament, where about two-thirds of the CHP's 138 deputies voted after the ruling to make him head of the party's parliamentary group.
Özel's new party, reported and confirmed
Özel's plan to found a new party is on the record, and he has framed it as a fallback. On 15 July he said preparations were under way for a possible new party, but that any formal step would wait until his ongoing legal challenges were exhausted, according to Reuters. He is pursuing an appeal against the ruling that removed him and a request for an extraordinary party congress, and only if those are blocked, he said, would a new party follow. A formal step could come, he told Sözcü TV, "towards the end of July or the beginning of August."
The finer details remain reported, not confirmed. Turkish outlets said this week that the founding petition could reach the Interior Ministry within days, under the working name "Yeni Parti," meaning "New Party," with dozens of CHP deputies expected to join. The exact date and the number varied between reports, and Özel had not set them out publicly.
The immunities file
Separately, motions to lift the parliamentary immunity of seven deputies, including Özel, were sent to parliament and referred to its joint constitutional and justice committee, Turkish outlets reported. A deputy parliamentary group chair of the governing AK Party, Leyla Şahin Usta, said stripping those immunities was not on parliament's agenda. Immunity motions are a procedural step and do not carry a finding of guilt.
What each side says
The crisis is read two ways, and the facts of the rulings do not settle which reading is right. On the government side, Justice Minister Akın Gürlek described the May ruling as one that "reinforces our citizens' trust in democracy," and the government maintains that Türkiye's courts act independently of political direction. On the opposition side, the CHP rejected the ruling as an "attempted coup" carried out through the judiciary, called for protests, and vowed to fight it in the courts; Özel told supporters he was promising them "honor, dignity, courage and struggle." The May decision hit financial markets hard, with the Borsa İstanbul index falling 6 percent and triggering a circuit breaker, and many outside observers have called the legal campaign against the CHP politically motivated, the AP and Reuters reported. The government rejects that, saying the judiciary is independent.
The case also unfolds around the party's most prominent figure. Ekrem İmamoğlu, the CHP mayor of İstanbul and the party's official presidential candidate, has been jailed since March 2025 and is on trial on corruption charges he denies. That vote is due in 2028, though the president can call an early one, and analysts say the CHP's disarray could tempt the government to move sooner.
For now the calendar sets the pace. The Court of Cassation will not return to the file before September, and until it does, the party's removed chairman is preparing to leave and take part of it with him.