Türkiye’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has referred nine lawmakers close to Özgür Özel to its High Disciplinary Board with a request for permanent expulsion, party spokesperson Müslim Sarı said on June 10.
Özel was suspended from the CHP chairmanship by a court ruling in May that annulled the party’s 2023 congress and provisionally reinstated former chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and his previous party organs.
Sarı said the decision was taken unanimously at a Central Executive Board meeting chaired by Kılıçdaroğlu.
The lawmakers referred to discipline are group deputy chairs Ali Mahir Başarır and Gökhan Günaydın, former deputy chairs Burhanettin Bulut, Özgür Karabat, Ensar Aytekin and Nurhayat Altaca Kayışoğlu, former High Disciplinary Board chair Turan Taşkın Özer, and lawmakers Veli Ağbaba and Umut Akdoğan.
Sarı said the nine were sent to the board “with a precautionary request for permanent expulsion” and had been suspended from all party duties pending the process.
He argued that the party had fallen into a “de facto dual structure” after the court ruling and said the decision was taken as part of what he called a “clean politics” process.
“We had to take this decision, difficult as it was, to cleanse the party in terms of clean politics,” Sarı said.
He said the CHP was not opposed to holding a congress and that the issue would be discussed at the Party Assembly meeting scheduled for June 11.
“Opening a path without a congress is not our intention,” Sarı said, adding that Kılıçdaroğlu would start a process on the congress at the meeting.
The move is expected to be challenged by Özel’s team.
Zeynel Emre, speaking for Özel’s team, said they would apply to a civil court for an interim measure against the disciplinary decisions and inform Parliament that the CHP group deputy chairs remained in office.
He said Özel’s team could force the Party Assembly to fall through resignations but preferred to attend the meeting and argue that the decision should be reversed.
Several of the lawmakers also rejected the move.
Akdoğan said MPs could not be sent to discipline by a Central Executive Board decision and that a Party Assembly decision was required.
Başarır called the decision unlawful and said it had no effect for him. Günaydın rejected the allegations and challenged party officials to present any financial or ethical wrongdoing against him.
Asked about the authority of the Central Executive Board, Sarı said the board had acted under an urgent-procedure provision in the party bylaws and that legal and internal appeal channels remained open.
He also said any decision concerning Özel would be made later.
The June 11 Party Assembly meeting is expected to bring Kılıçdaroğlu’s team and Özel-aligned members together as the party debates both the disciplinary process and a possible congress path.
