The Vise on Civilian Politics: Turkey's "Absolute Nullity" Ruling and the Operation to Engineer the Opposition

On May 21, 2026, Turkey witnessed an unprecedented judicial intervention in terms of political and legal history. The 36th Civil Chamber of the Ankara Regional Court of Justice (Court of Appeals) annulled the 38th Ordinary Convention of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP), held in November 2023, removed the current administration from office as a precautionary measure, and returned the party to the administration of former leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. This development is being debated in the international public sphere as a clear violation of democratic rules and the right to vote and be elected.

Below, this complex process is detailed under key headings and analyses:

1. What Is Absolute Nullity?

• Legal Definition: Absolute nullity (definitive invalidity) is the state in which a legal act is deemed never to have been performed at all and to have produced no consequence whatsoever in the legal realm from the very beginning, because its constitutive elements contradict mandatory law, morality, or public order.
• Explanation with Examples: In civil law, situations such as a marriage performed by an unauthorized person or a married person remarrying are tainted by absolute nullity and cannot be corrected afterward.
• Its Position in Political Law: Since the normal periods for ordinary objection and filing suit against the conventions of political parties had expired, reliance was placed on the "absolute nullity" ground in the Civil Code as the only way for former Hatay Metropolitan Mayor Lütfü Savaş and his colleagues to have this convention annulled.

2. Why Does the AKP Want the Absolute Nullity Ruling?

• To Paralyze the Opposition: To block the march to power of the CHP, which rose to the position of the first party with 38 percent of the vote in the last local elections, by occupying the party with its own internal disputes and rendering it incapable of producing politics.
• To Create a Domesticated Opposition: To ensure the permanence of the current regime by building a controlled and comfortable opposition structure with no aim of taking power.
• A Snap Election Calendar: To leave its strongest rival without a candidate and without an option by plunging it into a leadership crisis, as it heads into a snap election in the fall of 2026 in which President Erdoğan could run again.
• Parliamentary Arithmetic and the Constitution Plan: To make a new constitutional amendment with the support of MPs close to Kılıçdaroğlu, or to preserve the parliamentary arithmetic that would prevent former ministers from being tried before the Supreme Court in the event of a possible change in power.

3. On What Grounds and How Was It Achieved?

• Allegations of Vitiated Will: The official justification of the ruling is the allegation that, in order to secure votes for Özgür Özel at the 2023 convention, cash in suitcases, luxury phones (iPhones), and tablets were distributed to delegates, and that the delegates' will was vitiated through job promises at municipalities.
• Plea-Bargain Statements and Informants: The statements of former Uşak Mayor Özkan Yalım—removed from office and given under "effective remorse," alleging that he transferred money to Özel—were submitted to the court as evidence.
• Time-Calibrated Political Moves: Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu sharing a "purification in the party" video just a day before the ruling, and President Erdoğan delivering a group speech targeting the CHP at the same hours, are seen as signs that the process was conducted in an organized manner.
• The Precautionary Mechanism: While, under normal conditions, the implementation of absolute nullity rulings requires that they be finalized through the approval of the Court of Cassation, the court bypassed this requirement by issuing an "interim injunction" ruling and immediately reinstated the old administration.

4. What Is the Unlawful Aspect of the Ruling?

• Excess of Authority and Sidelining of the SBE: Under Article 79 of the Constitution, the administration and supervision of elections fall exclusively within the authority of the Supreme Board of Elections (SBE). It is plainly unlawful for the courts of ordinary jurisdiction (Civil Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeals) to annul convention elections that have passed through SBE supervision and become finalized.
• Substituting for the Criminal Court: While the ongoing criminal cases and investigations have not yet concluded, it is incompatible with the rule-of-law principle for a civil court to establish a precautionary ruling that functions like a final judgment, with the conviction that "the election was rigged."
• Disregarding Vested Rights and Decisions: The wholesale annulment of the two extraordinary and one ordinary convention the party held after the convention alleged to be tainted, of the new delegate structures, and of all political decisions taken, is a heavy blow to intra-party democracy.

5. What Are the Possible Scenarios Now?

Following this extraordinary judicial intervention, the 5 critical and detailed scenarios awaiting Turkey's most deep-rooted political structure—the first party in recent polls—are as follows:

Scenario A: Headquarters-Centered "De Facto Resistance" and a Social Boycott Line

• The Özgür Özel Administration's Decision: Özgür Özel declared that he would not leave his office or the headquarters building, saying, "Delegates who listened to the voice of the street seated us here; only they can remove us." Characterizing the ruling as "a civil coup carried out by the palace judiciary," the current administration maintains its ground of legitimacy.
• Legal Moves: As an initial reaction, an application was made to the Court of Cassation to lift the precautionary ruling, and simultaneously an urgent call was made to the Supreme Board of Elections (SBE) to protect the credentials it had granted and to defend its constitutional sphere of authority.
• Alliance and Grassroots Solidarity: All 81 provincial chairs and more than 100 MPs in parliament declared full support for Özel. Left-wing parties, unions, bar associations, and the broad opposition spectrum gathered in front of the headquarters to form a "Democracy Front."
• Action Plan: If this intervention is not withdrawn, methods of mass civil disobedience will be brought into play, including, if necessary, bringing life to a standstill, a general strike, and launching a boycott wave using the power that comes from consumption.

Scenario B: Kılıçdaroğlu's "Liquidate the Organization" and Drag-Out Strategy

• Institutional and Financial Blockade: Under the Court of Appeals' precautionary ruling, the party's official power of representation, signature rights, and most importantly the management of the Treasury aid (the party's coffers) pass to Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and his team. This situation has the potential to completely paralyze the Özel administration financially.
• Spatial Strategy: Because Kılıçdaroğlu knows the enormous negative perception the image of "a chairman entering the headquarters by police force" would create in public opinion, he will not insist on going to the building immediately. Instead, he will make parliament his main center of operations, through the offices of MPs close to him.
• Fundamentally Changing the Delegate Structure: Kılıçdaroğlu will not take the party to a convention right away, because he knows he would lose with the current delegate structure. His strategy is to spread the process over 1 to 1.5 years. During this time, under the name of "purification," all provincial/district chairs will be removed, and starting from the neighborhoods, a new delegate architecture will be built that will definitively elect him as leader.
• Exit from the İmamoğlu Equation: Kılıçdaroğlu's fundamental priority in this process is to completely cleanse the party of İmamoğlu's delegate and financial influence by applying the line of "continuing on the road without İmamoğlu."

Scenario C: The "Eminağaoğlu Formula" – Going to a Lightning Convention Without Appealing

• The Legal Fine Point: In this strategy that former YARSAV President Ömer Faruk Eminağaoğlu presented to the Özel administration, it is recommended that no appeal be filed with the Court of Cassation against the ruling. Because if the appeal route is taken, the Court of Cassation could sit on the file for months, and Kılıçdaroğlu would continue to stay in office under the precautionary measure.
• A Mandatory Convention: The moment the ruling is not appealed and becomes finalized, the 2023 convention will, by court ruling, remain null and void. Since the 3-year period for convening an ordinary convention under the Law on Political Parties has long been exceeded, Kılıçdaroğlu will be legally forced to convene the convention immediately.
• A Reckoning at the Ballot Box: Once the convention is finalized, Kılıçdaroğlu's timetable for liquidating the organization or changing delegates will blow up in his hand. The current delegates of the 2023 convention (with the Istanbul delegate election the court found irregular re-run) can take the party to the ballot box immediately, either through a notary (a one-fifth signature) or by a Party Assembly call. At the ballot box, Özel and his team could once again defeat Kılıçdaroğlu by an overwhelming majority and render the judicial intervention completely void.

Scenario D: A "Compromise and Withdrawal" Table at Bahçeli's Signal

• A Crack in the People's Alliance: Right after the ruling, a statement came from MHP Leader Devlet Bahçeli that shook the plans of the ruling bloc. Bahçeli stated that the court had certified that Kılıçdaroğlu had been wronged, but that the splitting of the CHP—a centuries-old plane tree—and the stirring of the streets would cause grave harm to the country.
• A Call to Withdraw: Bahçeli invited Kılıçdaroğlu to take on a historic responsibility, to sit down at the table with Özgür Özel, find a common formula, and announce that he was withdrawing his claim to the leadership.
• The Possibility of Negotiation: Kılıçdaroğlu's lawyer Celal Çelik confirmed that, in the name of preventing chaos, Kılıçdaroğlu would call Özgür Özel. In this scenario, in order to dampen the immense anger coming from the grassroots and to harvest legitimacy, Kılıçdaroğlu could agree to take the party directly to an election or convention with a joint "interim board / call committee," by reconciling with the Özel administration. (However, Özel declared in advance that he would not enter any ground of dialogue that would normalize the palace judiciary's ruling.)

Scenario E: Going to the Ballot Box with a "Backup Party" (Plan B)

• The Barrier of Closure and Obstruction: Özgür Özel confirmed that, against the possibilities of the ruling power pressing on the CHP's throat with judicial power, seizing its money, and cutting it off with a snap election, a "backup party" formula is already in their pocket as a precaution against a closure case. Gökhan Günaydın had also previously stated that a "Plan B" was ready.
• The Snap Election Vise: It is alleged that the ruling power is planning an early/snap election in the fall of 2026 and wants to control the official lists through Kılıçdaroğlu. Even if the official CHP nameplate passes to Kılıçdaroğlu, all legitimacy in the eyes of the electorate, the organizations, and the financial power lies with the Özel and İmamoğlu team.
• An Alliance Under a New Nameplate: Should Kılıçdaroğlu impose controlled lists that would relieve the ruling bloc, Özel, İmamoğlu, the 81 provincial organizations, and the MPs will, en masse, switch to the backup party that has the qualification to enter the election and is being held ready. The enormous "Turkey Alliance" formed with the opposition will enter the election under this new nameplate and launch a historic reckoning against the ruling power at the ballot box.

6. Methodologically, What Could Be Realistic Solutions?

Dissolving this leadership crisis and institutional blockade—designed to be engineered through the judiciary—is not possible with defense mechanisms squeezed into the corridors of the courthouse. In such periods when unlawfulness has been institutionalized, result-producing solutions are built through the active use of constitutional guarantees, tactical legal moves, and most importantly the reflection of the people's will into the streets by forming a united front.

• The most realistic and concrete solution paths that can be applied methodologically can be gathered under the following headings:

  A) The "Constitutional Authority Wall" and the SBE Bloc Strategy

  • The SBE Defending Its Institutional Existence: Under Article 79 of the Constitution, the administration and supervision of elections in Turkey fall exclusively within the authority of the Supreme Board of Elections (SBE), and the SBE's decisions are final. The convention wills of political parties and the credentials they receive are part of the electoral-law regime. For a civil court of first instance or an appellate chamber to trample this domain would mean the SBE denying its own reason for existence.
  • Urgent Application and Intervention: The current party administration must apply directly to the SBE to defend its consistent decisions and the legitimate credentials it itself granted. For the SBE to reject this annulment ruling by the courts of ordinary jurisdiction on the grounds of "excess of authority" would ensure the resolution of the crisis by the fastest and most legitimate route.

  B) Tactical Finalization: A Lightning Convention via the "Eminağaoğlu Formula"

  • Avoiding the Appeal Trap: The real desire of the ruling bloc and the trustee administration is for the current administration to appeal the ruling to the Court of Cassation. Because the appeal process could be left in suspense by the Court of Cassation for months or years. During this period, since the interim injunction would remain in force, the party would stay under Kılıçdaroğlu's control for a long time.
  • The Obligation of a Legal Convention: As former YARSAV President Ömer Faruk Eminağaoğlu pointed out, the CHP administration should not file an appeal and should allow the ruling to become finalized quickly. Once the ruling is finalized, the 2023 convention will remain entirely null and void in law. Since, under the Law on Political Parties, the 3-year ordinary convention period will have long been exceeded, Kılıçdaroğlu will have no legal option other than to convene the convention.
  • A Political Reckoning at the Ballot Box: The convention delegates have already been determined beforehand. Before Kılıçdaroğlu can find the opportunity to liquidate the organizations, an extraordinary convention can be convened at lightning speed, either through a call made by one-fifth of the current delegates via a notary or by a Party Assembly decision. The will of the organization can completely collapse the judicial intervention by re-electing Özel and his team at the ballot box.

  C) The "Democracy Front": United Struggle with All Components

  • Common Struggle Without Hierarchy: This crisis is not merely a problem of one party's internal functioning, but a heavy blow struck at the future of multi-party political life. The solution is for all political parties that believe in democracy—from the furthest right to the furthest left, regardless of vote share—to come together at the headquarters level to form a "United Front."
  • Activating Legitimate Civil Resistance: In order to make the de facto implementation of unlawfulness impossible, bar associations, unions, professional chambers, and democratic mass organizations must prepare a joint action plan. As leader Özgür Özel also emphasized, without getting caught on unjust barriers, mass solidarity methods—on legitimate and peaceful ground—such as general resistance, a general strike, using the power that comes from consumption (boycott), and if necessary slowing down life, must be brought into play in an organized manner.

  D) Intra-Party Common Sense and an Autonomous Convention Calendar

  • Not Escalating the Tension: As Ankara Metropolitan Mayor Mansur Yavaş also suggested, intra-party hostility and images of physical conflict—which would only serve the ruling power's interests—must absolutely be avoided.
  • A Declaration of Autonomous Will: To nullify the externally imposed judicial pressure, the current party will must announce to society, by its own autonomous decision, that the party will go directly to a convention within 1-2 months. This move will break, at the societal level, the perception of "there is chaos and corruption in the party" promoted by the centers taking refuge in the trustee administration.

The Common Reaction of the Non-CHP Opposition and the Democratic Forces

This judicial intervention was perceived by all opposition elements outside the CHP and by civil society as a common threat to the multi-party system, and was met with harsh reactions.

Views of the Political Parties

Political Structure	Basic Approach and Criticism of the Ruling
Labor Party (EMEP)	It is a move toward "a transition to a regime without opposition." The ruling is one of the turning points of the process the Palace regime is conducting toward building fascism.
Workers' Party of Turkey (TİP)	We do not recognize the ruling. It is an attempt at counter-revolution. We will not politically engage any sanctioned holder of a CHP seat; they are all puppets of the Palace.
SOL Party	In an environment without opposition and without elections, a Palace trustee has been appointed to the main opposition as part of a ballot-box construction in which Erdoğan is de facto the sole candidate.
DEM Party	It is an operation to engineer politics through the judiciary. This ruling creates a crisis of trust by deepening the distrust toward the ongoing process of social peace and a democratic society.
İYİ Party	"We are utterly opposed to any kind of undemocratic intervention against the will of the nation. In our eyes, the nullity ruling handed down is itself absolute nullity." (Müsavat Dervişoğlu)
New Welfare (YRP)	The body that resolves this is not the courts but the nation. Don't delay; bring the ballot box, let the nation give the final ruling.
Anahtar Party	The ballot box and democracy have been disregarded. This ruling will have grave consequences for the country's economy and international reputation.

The Stance of Civil Society and the Bar Associations

• The Istanbul, Ankara, and İzmir Bar Associations: They declared that the ordinary judiciary (the appeals court) has no authority to annul a convention, and that this ruling would open the way for all general and local elections held in Turkey to become subjects of judicial proceedings years later.
• The Human Rights Association (İHD): It emphasized that the authoritarian administration is moving to engineer political parties, associations, professional chambers, and unions through the judiciary; that every elected will is under absolute threat.

Conclusion: The United Front and the People as the True Owner of Democracy

This "absolute nullity" intervention carried out against the main opposition party in Turkey is the most concrete reflection of the authoritarian tendencies aimed at narrowing the space for civilian politics to maneuver and at domesticating the social opposition. But this dark picture, beyond being merely one party's internal matter, constitutes a clear threat to all democratic gains in the country and to the constitutional order. Viewed from the standpoint of international human rights norms and the reconstruction of a culture of a democratic society, the only way to achieve results against such unlawful practices runs through creating a determined united front instead of fragmented reactions.

It is a vital necessity for political parties of different ideological lines, bar associations, unions, professional chambers, and civil society organizations to set aside all their structural divergences and meet on a common line of democracy and justice. Methodologically, the limited legal processes that individual parties would conduct in courthouse corridors, or political bargaining among elites, will not suffice to break a systematic siege of this scale. Against these unlawful operations, only an organized united struggle structure—in which all components of civil society stand shoulder to shoulder, knit together around a common reason and conscience—can truly produce results.

More important than all of this, and the real element that will determine the fate of this historical threshold, is the people directly defending their own democratic rights, will, and future. Democracy is not a periodic privilege bestowed upon society by centers of power or panels of judges; it is the most fundamental title-deed of existence, won by the people through their own struggle, that they must defend at all costs. What brings political parties into being is not institutional buildings or seals, but the free will put forth by the voters and by society. The principle that sovereignty belongs unconditionally to the nation can only be protected by citizens taking a peaceful, determined, and mass stance against attempts to usurp their own right to vote and to be elected.

Ultimately, the calculations of those who wish to regulate the political arena by leaving society without a candidate, without a leader, and without an option are doomed to melt away before the democratic resistance of society and the united front it creates. Turkey's future will be determined not by scenarios of authoritarian consolidation or by the rulings of the palace judiciary, but by the will of the people, who themselves defend—without yielding—their own rights, their ballot box, and their culture of democracy.

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