Ankara Court Annuls CHP Congress, Reinstates Kılıçdaroğlu

The 36th Civil Chamber of the Ankara Regional Court of Justice ruled unanimously on Thursday that the Republican People's Party's (CHP) 38th Ordinary Elective Congress of 4-5 November 2023 was legally invalid on grounds of "absolute nullity," temporarily removing current chair Özgür Özel, the Central Executive Board (MYK), Party Assembly and High Disciplinary Board elected at that congress, and reinstating former chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu — who led the party 2010-2023 — together with the organs that served before it. The chamber also annulled every subsequent ordinary and extraordinary congress, including the 8 October 2023 Istanbul provincial congress, and overturned a 24 October 2025 lower-court ruling that had declared the case moot. The decision is interim pending an appeal to the Court of Cassation within two weeks; CHP deputy chair Gokan Zeybek told Medyascope that "all decisions taken by courts acting on instructions [from the government] are null and void as far as we are concerned" and Özel called an emergency MYK meeting. Kılıçdaroğlu signalled openness: "May this decision be beneficial to Turkey and CHP."

The order arrives against the backdrop of the CHP's record performance in the 2024 local elections against the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the campaign of arrests that followed. Ekrem İmamoğlu, the CHP's presidential candidate selected at the March 2025 party primary and the imprisoned former mayor of Istanbul — held on corruption, extortion, bribery, money laundering, espionage and terrorism-support charges he denies — has been polled as capable of defeating President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Whether Thursday's annulment reaches back to invalidate the primary that nominated him is unclear; scores of CHP local officials and party workers have been detained over the past year.

In parallel, the Grand National Assembly passed an economic-policy law on Wednesday cutting the corporate tax rate for manufacturing companies to 12.5% from 25%, introducing a 5% tax on assets repatriated from abroad, extending tax exemptions for financial-services exports at the Istanbul Financial Center until 2047, and granting a twenty-year income-tax exemption for firms based at the centre. The package is the most concrete piece of fiscal-incentive legislation the AKP has delivered since the lira's renewed pressure earlier in the year.

Israeli sources told AFP, in a report that ran through Daily Sabah on Thursday, that Israel is considering shutting its consulate in Istanbul — one of its oldest diplomatic missions, opened in 1949 — after a 7 April 2026 shooting near the building and against the backdrop of the Gaza-war diplomatic tensions. The embassy in Ankara, staffed by local personnel since Israeli diplomats were evacuated, would remain open; both posts have been operating without resident Israeli diplomats for over two years.