Both fishing and kayyım season kicked off this week in Turkey. All is fair game.
We just aim to survive till the next batch of Çubuk Turşusu, which got a new statue – or ‘brine shrine’ depending on your devotion.
In this week’s recap:
CHP under ‘360-degree attack’
Erdoğan spotlights Gaza in China visit
Syria rhetoric weighs on peace process
Domestic and diplomatic wraps
Turkey caught with its browsers down
Also from us this week:
Neslihan Çevik discussed what’s behind Turkey’s low birth rates on Recap radio
Tomorrow: Emily Rice Johnson details the kayyım market crash in Economy recap
Next week: Analyst and author Gönül Tol joins our podcast to take stock of the PKK peace talks. Watch the livestream here Monday, Sept. 8 at 1700 TRT / 1000 EDT.
On July 8, CHP Istanbul Provincial Chair Özgür Çelik gave a court statement for a corruption investigation into the party’s 2023 Istanbul Provincial Congress.
"I constantly emphasize the same thing,” he told reporters. “The Republican People's Party is under a 360-degree attack.”
Çelik Monday turned his words into an infographic detailing 14 trials this month targeting CHP members and opposition groups. Then Tuesday, a court dismissed Çelik, appointing a kayyım (trustee) in his place for alleged irregularities in the above-mentioned Provincial Congress.
Along with the ousted Istanbul district mayors for Beyoğlu and Beşiktaş, Çelik faces up to three years in jail on “vote rigging” charges in the latest blow to Turkey’s main opposition party – and democratic credentials – since the March arrest of the city’s metropolitan mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu.
“I see the intervention in the CHP Congress as part of what we call authoritarian creativity in Turkey – an ironic answer to the question: How do you win elections without actually winning them?” said Seren Selvin Korkmaz, co-director of the İstanPol Institute and Mercator-IPC Fellow at the İstanbul Policy Center.
“The broader picture is clear,” she continued in a text sent to Turkey recap. “What was once done to paralyze the HDP is now being applied to the CHP. Step by step, these interventions are not only weakening the main opposition but also pushing Turkey further toward a new stage of authoritarianism.”
Details: The court order suspended all decisions taken at the CHP Istanbul Provincial Congress on October 8, 2023 and nearly 200 party delegates.
Çelik was replaced by Gürsel Tekin, the former CHP Istanbul provincial chair, who reportedly announced his resignation from the party in Feb. 2024, but didn’t complete the formalities, so is still a party member …
Though Tekin is now facing expulsion from the CHP for “actions that undermine party discipline.”
Meanwhile, seven more CHP municipality officials were detained Wednesday as part of corruption investigations.
Outlook: Speaking to AFP, political scientist Berk Esen framed Tuesday’s court decision as a “rehearsal” for the upcoming CHP Congress trial on Sept. 15, which could annul the leadership of party chair Özgür Özel.
If that happens, many expect the reinstatement of former CHP chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu (with a new kitchen according to Reddit), but there are various possible scenarios as detailed here by journalist Ceren Bayar.
Bayar cites CHP sources who do not expect the court to nullify the CHP Congress, but they say a kayyım appointment is possible, and that a Kılıçdaroğlu return is in the cards.
Likewise, Korkmaz said the Sept. 15 trial can produce many outcomes, stating that even if a decision is postponed, “the pressure on CHP’s leadership will only grow.”
“This process also risks dividing the CHP, as some figures opposing the current leadership have accepted such imposed roles, which can create new fractures within the party and even in its municipalities,” she told Turkey recap.
“Whether or not the court rules on September 15, CHP will remain trapped in its internal problems,” Korkmaz added.
Speaking to TRT Haber Wednesday, Justice Min. Yilmaz Tunç said the outcomes of both the Istanbul Provincial Congress and CHP Congress “could impact each other.”
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