The dismissed leader of Turkey's main opposition party - the Republican People's Party (CHP) - Özgür Özel called today for a new CHP party congress within 40 days, the Haberler website reported.
On May 21, the Ankara Court of Appeals ruled to cancel the party's 38th congress in 2023 and, as a consequence, to remove the current party chairman Özgür Özel from office and reinstate the previous CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. The decision was based on the fact that the vote to elect the leadership was tainted by bribes and promises of other benefits to delegates. After the announcement of the measure, the HDP appealed it to the High Election Commission, the Supreme Court of Cassation and the Ankara Court of Appeal. Following the decisions of the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Election Commission yesterday to reject the HDP's appeal, the only valid one remains the one to the Supreme Court of Cassation.
Yözel set the holding of a new congress within 40 days as a condition for a meeting with the reinstated leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, notes “Haberler“.
“There are many developments in politics and positions are taken accordingly. Yesterday we spoke with him (with Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu – ed. note) on the phone and our colleagues will continue the discussions after that. "If a decision is made regarding the congress (to be held within the next 40 days), I would be happy to meet face to face, but first I have to read a decision to (convene) the congress in the newspaper. Then, of course, we can meet and talk," Özel told reporters.
Yesterday, Turkish media reported that Özel and Kılıçdaroğlu had their first phone conversation since the court ruling. In yesterday's conversation, Kılıçdaroğlu told Özel that he would convene a party congress at the most appropriate time. The information makes it clear that Özel accepted the proposal with pleasure and said that he would discuss it with his colleagues and give him an answer.