 has no involvement in a lawsuit that could remove the leader of #Turkey’s main opposition party, which has been battling a growing array of legal challenges.){kind=link}
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has no involvement in a lawsuit that could remove the leader of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which has been battling a growing array of legal challenges.
The case seeks to overturn the results of a CHP congress in November 2023 on grounds of vote rigging. During the vote longtime party chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu was ousted and Özgür Özel was elected in his place. He remains party leader today but faces being unseated if the lawsuit succeeds.
Critics say the vote-buying case is a politically motivated attempt to undermine Turkey’s oldest political party, which won a huge victory over President Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the 2024 local elections and has been rising in the polls.
Speaking to reporters on his flight back from Qatar, Erdoğan dismissed those claims, saying, “We as the [AKP] are not part of this case in any way,” he said. “Those filing complaints and those standing trial are all within the CHP’s own corridors.”
Former mayor of Hatay in southern Turkey Lütfü Savaş and several other CHP delegates have filed lawsuits seeking to annul the results of the congress in addition to filing criminal complaints against 12 people including jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu over alleged irregularities at the congress.
Prosecutors drafted an indictment against the 12 people while the lawsuits were consolidated and are being reviewed by the Ankara 42nd Civil Court of First Instance.
Erdoğan’s remarks came one day after the latest hearing in the lawsuit was held in an Ankara court on Monday. The court decided to adjourn the proceedings until October 24.
The indictment of the 12 defendants names Kılıçdaroğlu as the injured party and seeks jail terms of up to three years for 11 CHP mayors and officials for “vote-rigging.”
The CHP’s popularity has grown since it led Turkey’s biggest street protests in a decade, triggered in March by the jailing of İmamoğlu, who was declared his party’s presidential candidate for the next general election.
In addition to İmamoğlu, seen as Erdoğan’s biggest rival, hundreds of CHP members have been jailed pending trial in a separate, sprawling legal probe into alleged corruption and terrorism links. The centrist CHP denies the charges against it.
The party, human rights groups and some European leaders say the crackdown on the CHP is politically motivated and anti-democratic, claims denied by the government, which says that Turkey’s judiciary is independent.
Erdoğan also welcomed recent defections from opposition ranks, including mayors and city council members, as proof of disillusionment inside the CHP. “Our doors are open,” he said. “Those who come to us see that the AKP is the address of clean politics and service to the nation.”
In recent months several local officials have crossed over to the AKP, most recently the acting mayor of İstanbul’s Beykoz district. Erdoğan said he expects more to follow.
“People prefer the AKP because it is a stable party with strong leadership and long experience in government,” he said. “These defections show that the AKP and its alliance will continue on its path with growing strength.”
The most prominent politician who defected is Aydın Mayor Özlem Çerçioğlu, who left the CHP last month to join the AKP. Critics say mayors are often pressured into switching sides, either by the threat of corruption probes or by promises of government financial support.