ANKARA (Reuters) – Turkey’s main opposition party, already battered by an unprecedented legal crackdown, could see its leader ousted by a court on Monday in what some see as a test of the country’s shaky balance between democracy and autocracy.
An Ankara court is set to decide whether to annul the party’s 2023 congress over alleged procedural irregularities – a move that would strip its chairman, Ozgur Ozel, of his title and further erode the opposition’s leadership and authority.
Hundreds of members of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) have been jailed pending trial in a sprawling probe into alleged graft and terrorism links, among them President Tayyip Erdogan’s main political rival, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu.
The centrist CHP, which denies the charges against it, is level with Erdogan’s Islamic-rooted, conservative AK party (AKP) in polls. Ozel, 50, its scrappy, hoarse-voiced leader, has risen to prominence since Imamoglu’s detention.
Anti-Erdogan street protests have flared again in the last week, including in Ankara on Sunday, over a legal crackdown critics call politicised and anti-democratic. The government rejects this, saying the judiciary is independent.
Turkey’s Opposition Leader Faces Court Ouster as Political Crisis Deepens
