 has lost nine lawmakers from its official party rolls after their membership records were deleted from the Supreme Court of Appeals’ political parties registry, Independent Turkish reported.){kind=link}
Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has lost nine lawmakers from its official party rolls after their membership records were deleted from the Supreme Court of Appeals’ political parties registry, Independent Turkish reported.
The move reduces the number of CHP lawmakers from 138 to 129.
The lawmakers were referred to the party’s High Disciplinary Board earlier this month by a leadership team headed by former CHP chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who returned to the post after a court removed Özgür Özel and his team from the party leadership last month.
The court ruling, issued on May 21, annulled the CHP’s 2023 congress, where Özel had defeated Kılıçdaroğlu and become party chairman.
The decision put Kılıçdaroğlu and his former team back in charge, setting off a fight over who controls Turkey’s largest opposition party.
The nine lawmakers were sent to the disciplinary board on June 10 with a request for expulsion and were suspended from party duties while the process is underway.
But Turkish media reports said their membership records were deleted before the disciplinary board had completed its review.
Umut Akdoğan, a CHP lawmaker from Ankara whose membership was deleted, said the move was rushed and unlawful because he still had the right to defend himself before the disciplinary board and challenge any decision in court.
Bu ne acele?
YDK’ya hukuksuz bir sevk var.
İtiraz ettik.
YDK’da savunma hakkımız var.
Mahkemeye itiraz hakkımız var.Biz CHP üyesiyiz.
Bir yanlışla tedbiren partideki görevlerimiz varsa (benim yok) onların önüne set çektiniz, parti üyeliğini öyle kafanıza göre silemezsiniz. pic.twitter.com/9T4d3fVtZw— Umut Akdoğan (@AKDOGANumut) June 17, 2026
“What’s the rush?” Akdoğan said in a social media post. He shared an official query document dated June 17 from the political parties registry office of the chief public prosecutor’s office at the Supreme Court of Appeals.
The document said he had no registered membership in any political party.
“There is an unlawful referral to the High Disciplinary Board. We objected. We have the right to defend ourselves before the board. We have the right to appeal in court. We are CHP members,” he said.
The Supreme Court of Appeals is also home to a chief public prosecutor’s office that keeps the official registry of political party members. The lawmakers’ removal from that registry means they no longer appear as CHP members in the official party records.
The lawmakers referred for expulsion are Ali Mahir Başarır, Burhanettin Bulut, Ensar Aytekin, Gökhan Günaydın, Nurhayat Altaca Kayışoğlu, Özgür Karabat, Turan Taşkın Özer, Veli Ağbaba and Akdoğan.
Kılıçdaroğlu’s lawyer, Celal Çelik, confirmed to the Sözcü daily that the party memberships of the nine lawmakers whose expulsion had been requested were deleted by the Supreme Court of Appeals.
Their biographies on the Turkish Parliament’s website are expected to be updated to list them as independents, Sözcü reported.
The move is the latest step in the struggle inside the CHP since Kılıçdaroğlu’s court-ordered return.
Özel and his supporters reject the ruling and say the government is using the courts to weaken the opposition after the CHP won Turkey’s largest cities and many other municipalities in the 2024 local elections.
The CHP has also faced investigations, prosecutions and the removal of elected mayors. İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, one of the party’s most prominent figures and a possible presidential challenger, has been jailed since March 2025 on what many say politically motivated corruption charges.