The Turkish public has recently introduced a legal term that can seal the fate of the largest opposition party, Republican People’s Party or CHP. “Mutlak Butlan” means complete disdain, referring to a situation where something is considered to be the first to complete zero or invalid.
This is what can happen on June 30, when the test against CHP comes to end.
If the Judge in the capital, Ankara decides to declare the 38th party of CHP tap and zero, the party’s entire reform-mind leadership loosened its validity. Turkish’s oldest party, which has collected millions to protest against the imprisonment of Ekrem Imamoglu, its presidential candidate in March, will be submerged in total chaos.
What about the test?
After the CHP’s landslide defeat in the Turkish presidential election in May 2023, any call was made to change the leadership with the party. In particular, the confident Imamoglu, who defeated the candidate of Turkish President Recep Tayip Erdogan three times in Istanbul, urged his party to improve.
In the next November, at the party Congress, Imamoglu supported the current party president Ozgur Ozel, who for a long time strong in a vote against Chairman Kemal Kilikadaroglu, in which all party leaders were replaced.
76-year-old Kilikadaroglu-Vhom supervisors said that very little Karishma-Had led the CHP for about 14 years, losing every election against the ruling AKP party and President Erdogan.
However, the traditional nationalist wing of Kilikadaroglu did not accept the defeat. As a result, he filed criminal allegations and claimed that the election process was conducted illegally in the party Congress under consideration. He accused the reformist wing under Ozel and Imamoglu of winning only by buying votes of delegates. In turn, the office of the public prosecutor started in the investigation.
To prevent a negative decision, the CHP had placed the party’s conference at an unwanted party conference last April, in which a large majority re -elected the new leadership. However, the old wing again filed criminal allegations against the result.
Turkish supporting government media Meville tried to establish the two sides against each other, claiming that the old president and their supporters were victims of internal party struggle.
The result is a terrible controversy that divided the party into two camps, in which the sides have insulted serious allegations and each other.
Is Erdogan a strategic maneuver against the opposition?
Burke Essen, a political scientist at the Sabsi University in Istanbul, said Erdogan is trying to weaken and divide the CHP due to his popularity and efforts to oppose the increasing suppression.
He told DW that the Turkish President had already used this method against three opposition parties, each time with success.
Essen said that Erdogan is once again stepping into the way of improvement and rejuvenation to combat the development of new groups of opposition voters, who prefer old, entangled and unsuccessful opposition leaders as rivals. If the court ruled against the young CHP leadership on Monday, Erdogan will be able to add another win to his tally, he said.
What are possible results?
Legal experts separate the Turkish judiciary to become independent, and for several days there has been speculation about the trail results.
If the decision is in favor of the current leadership, which is unlikely, the CHP under Ozgur Ozel may continue its course.
If the judges rule against the current leadership, the party leaders and structure will loose their validity. In this case, former leaders can handle the Kilikadaroglu party and shape the CHP as per their wish.
Kilikadaroglu has already said that he prefers to return to the party to stop the appointment of a temporary administrator. Should this be passed, political scientist Essen said, it will be even more chaos because Kilikadaroglu will not support Aadhaar.
Should a temporary administrator take control of the party, Essen is sure he will not have any chance. The resistance within the party wild is great for him to be able to hold a party conference after about six weeks, as the current legal position is required, and the current president Ozel and his groups wild definitely win once again once again.
In the fourth scenario, reformers will start a new political party except CHP. However, observers have said that such parties have never reached the strength of the original party in the recent history of the country, and the original parties have become weak and ineffective.
A final result can postpone the decision – a step that will further divide the CHP and portray the party as an incompetent option that would be unwanted for a country.
The future of Türkiye’s largest opposition party is at stake. Since the arrest of his presidential candidate Ekrem Imamoglu, it has been organizing big rallies twice a week. He has gathered millions of people, even in the ruling AKP party strongholds. A ruling ruling that consider the leadership of the current CHP party, which bends that spotlight, with the party itself and with its chaos for a long time.
Consequently, the popular Imamoglu – Erdogan’s main challenger – can be disappeared for political despise in prison, without the support of a strong opposition party.
This article was original in German.
