These steps are part of a broader strategy: silencing dissent, undermining elections, and suppressing social resistance.

It is crucial that international friends, democratic organizations, and solidarity networks pay close attention and make these developments visible. Thank you.

This is not only about CHP. It is about dismantling the very possibility of political pluralism in Turkey. If the state can remove the leadership of the main opposition through judicial fiat and then criminalize protest, no opposition force is safe.

That same evening, the governor declared that even calling for peaceful protest would be considered a crime. In plain words, the authorities announced the suspension of constitutional rights.

On 7 September, the Istanbul Governor’s Office escalated further: it imposed a four-day ban on all demonstrations across six central districts and surrounded the CHP provincial HQ with police.

This has no democratic legitimacy; it is a direct attack on the right of party members to choose their own representatives.

And removed its elected provincial chair, Özgür Çelik, along with the entire elected board. In their place, the court imposed a so-called “temporary board” – in practice, a trustee over an opposition party’s local organization.