{"id":833391,"date":"2026-05-31T00:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-05-31T00:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/833391\/"},"modified":"2026-05-31T00:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-05-31T00:08:15","slug":"ousted-turkish-opposition-leader-draws-massive-anti-erdogan-crowd-in-ankara","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/833391\/","title":{"rendered":"Ousted Turkish opposition leader draws massive anti-Erdogan crowd in Ankara"},"content":{"rendered":"

Turkey’s ousted opposition leader Ozgur Ozel<\/a> showed he can still command strong support on Saturday, drawing a crowd of thousands in Ankara despite a court ruling that removed him from office and dealt a blow to President Tayyip Erdogan’s challengers.<\/p>\n

After addressing supporters – estimated in the tens of thousands by the private Anka news agency and media outlets close to the opposition – Ozel led a march through the capital following last week’s ruling<\/a> that removed him as leader of the main opposition CHP.<\/p>\n

The court annulled the CHP’s 2023 party congress, effectively reinstating former chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu – a divisive figure within the party who lost to Erdogan in an election earlier that year.<\/p>\n

The move could boost Erdogan’s chances of extending his \u200bmore than two-decade rule of the NATO member country and major emerging market economy.<\/p>\n

On Saturday, Kilicdaroglu visited the CHP party headquarters for the first time since the May 21 ruling and pledged to purge the party of corruption, referring to cases involving CHP-run municipalities.<\/p>\n

The ousted leadership denies the allegations, calling them politically motivated, a charge the government rejects.<\/p>\n

As Kilicdaroglu spoke, Ozel addressed a bigger crowd in front of the party’s Ankara provincial office.<\/p>\n

“This is not an internal matter for the CHP,” Ozel said. “This is a matter between Erdogan and the nation. On one side are the seized buildings; on the other, millions standing up for their party and their country.”<\/p>\n

He said the court ruling did not legitimize Kilicdaroglu’s leadership and called for an immediate party congress, as supporters chanted “Leader Ozgur!” and “Traitor Kemal!”<\/p>\n

He then led a peaceful march to the mausoleum of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, founder of modern Turkey and the CHP.<\/p>\n

Ankara Mayor Mansur Yavas, seen as an alternative CHP presidential candidate to jailed Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu – still considered Erdogan’s biggest political rival – also joined the protest and called for a congress.<\/p>\n

Kilicdaroglu said one would be held “as soon as possible,” without giving a timeline.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Turkey’s ousted opposition leader Ozgur Ozel showed he can still command strong support on Saturday, drawing a crowd…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":833392,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[32305,103821,8959,50,24922,103],"class_list":["post-833391","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-ankara","tag-erdogan","tag-nato","tag-news","tag-turkey","tag-world"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116666284696471750","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833391","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833391"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833391\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}