ISTANBUL: A Turkish court ruling to effectively oust opposition leader Ozgur Ozel has inflamed a political crisis, rattled financial markets and could prolong the 23-year rule of President Tayyip Erdogan.

The May 21 decision came against the backdrop of an extended crackdown that has seen the detention or jailing of hundreds of members of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and several mayors.

The CHP condemned the appeals court ruling as a “judicial coup”, with Ozel vowing to fight it through legal appeals. After police firing tear gas forced him out of the party’s headquarters on May 24, Ozel marched to parliament and vowed that the CHP would from now on be “on the streets, in the squares, marching towards power”.

Smaller opposition parties also criticised the ruling as anti-democratic, while Erdogan ally Devlet Bahceli suggested the judiciary should not intervene in internal party matters.

EU concerned over rule of law and judicial independence

The pro-Kurdish DEM, parliament’s third-biggest party, denounced the ruling and said the police operation at the CHP’s headquarters was a “disgrace to democracy”.

Justice Minister Akin Gurlek said the court’s decision demonstrated that democracy’s self-correcting mechanisms and rule of law were functioning, a view echoed by a spokesperson for Erdogan’s ruling AK Party (AKP).

The European Union raised concerns over the rule of law, judicial independence and democratic pluralism in Turkiye, a candidate for EU membership, saying that opposition parties must be able to operate freely without fear of repression.

Analysts have said they view the ruling as a test of the balance between democracy and autocracy for Nato member Turkiye and that it could prolong Erdogan’s rule.

The crisis rattled markets, pushing the lira and other Turkish assets lower and forcing the central bank to sell billions in foreign reserves, though conditions stabilised a day later.

Ozel was elected CHP chairman in a party congress in 2023, replacing Kemal Kilicdaroglu. He has led anti-Erdogan rallies since the arrest of Erdogan’s main political rival, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu. The court ruling reinstated Kilicdaroglu as CHP leader. A divisive figure, Kilicdaroglu led the party for 13 years and lost the party chairmanship following his defeat to Erdogan in the 2023 presidential election.

Imamoglu was jailed in March 2025 on graft and other charges ranging from espionage to terrorism, which he strongly denies. His university diploma was also annulled, rendering him ineligible under Turkish rules to run for the presidency.

Erdogan has reached his term limit and can only run if an early election is called or if the constitution is amended. He currently lacks the 360 members in the 600-seat parliament to hold a referendum. The next presidential vote is set for 2028.

The crackdown dates back to October 31, 2024, when Ahmet Ozer, the CHP mayor of Istanbul’s Esenyurt district, was jailed pending trial over alleged links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group, before being released on November 12, 2025 with a ruling still pending. Hundreds of members and elected officials have been detained since 2024 on corruption and other charges, which the CHP denies. Imamoglu’s arrest in March 2025 sparked a sharp market selloff and Turkiye’s largest protests in a decade.

The CHP and some Eur­o­pean leaders say the crackdown is a politically orchestrated attempt to muzzle dissent under Erdo­gan’s ‘increasingly authoritarian rule’.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2026