All eyes on Ankara! CHP Congress trial begins

The hearing of the annulment case filed at the Ankara 42nd Civil Court of First Instance regarding the cancellation of the CHP's 38th Ordinary Congress held on November 4-5, 2023, and the 21st Extraordinary Congress held on April 6, 2025, has begun.

Former CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and Lütfü Savaş did not attend the hearing.

At the last hearing held on September 15, the court unanimously decided to postpone the hearing until October 24.

CONGRESS DATE HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED

Meanwhile, CHP Spokesperson Deniz Yücel announced that the CHP's 39th Ordinary Congress will be held at the Ankara Arena Sports Hall on November 28-30. The congress is planned to be held over three days at the Ankara Arena on November 28-30. The first day will feature a vote on the party program, followed by the general presidential election on the second, and the third day will feature elections for the PM, YDK, and Science, Culture, and Arts Platform. Prior to the congress, vision documents related to the party program will be shared under four main headings. An interactive event is planned to launch the vision documents, which will be shared under the headings of democracy and justice, development, social state, foreign policy, and security. This initiative aims to promote the program in all its aspects.

CHP PREDICT POSTPONEMENT

The fifth hearing of the lawsuit filed alleging suspicion of corruption at the CHP's 38th Ordinary Congress, held on November 4-5, 2023, will be held tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. CHP members, stating that the case remains without a topic, agree that the hearing will be postponed again. The CHP Central Executive Committee, which will be present at the party headquarters during the hearing just in case, is reportedly not preparing for a vigil as it was at the previous hearing on September 15. The staff emphasized that what happened in Istanbul is unlikely to happen anywhere else in Türkiye, saying:

We will insist at the hearing, "The case must now be dismissed." But we anticipate it will be postponed. They've created a legal system and a judicial system in Istanbul to suit their whims. They operate with the logic of "We wanted it, so it happened." The attacks on the party's congresses and conventions shouldn't be seen separately from the attacks on the mayors. The indictment we read today as the Aziz İhsan Aktaş indictment and the congress trial to be heard tomorrow are actually a whole. This party is under attack, and it's under attack in every way. The presence of Court of Accounts inspectors in municipalities is part of this, as are the deductions from the resources that the Iller Bank should transfer to municipalities, and the demands to "Pay your Social Security Institution (SGK) tax debts" are also part of this. Therefore, we shouldn't treat them as separate entities.

“We continue to repel attacks with our strong opposition.”

But we consider that we've reached a plateau. This is how an authoritarian man puts pressure on people when he sees he's about to lose. Devlet Bahçeli's words, "Turnout was low, this election is not legitimate," are also part of this. This sentence is part of the process of nullifying elections. The cancellation of the 2019 Istanbul election is also a part of this. They will continue like this. They didn't anticipate such a strong opposition from us. With our resolute and strong opposition, we repelled them, and we continue to do so. Nothing will come of this lawsuit. Nothing will come of anything that follows."

"When we became the leading party, the congress started to be discussed"

The staff emphasized that there was no discussion about the congress before the CHP became the leading party in the March 31st local elections, saying, "When the CHP became the leading party, that's when the congress began to be discussed. From the course and stance of the court hearing the case in Ankara, we didn't get the impression that a complete nullity would be issued. There's a separate world in Istanbul; there's a clique within the judiciary. We see that the court that dismissed the Istanbul provincial administration made this decision under political influence, but there's no such atmosphere in Ankara."