The main opposition force in Turkey - the Republican People's Party (CHP), will hold an extraordinary congress today, BTA reported.
This will be the 21st extraordinary congress of the CHP, which is Turkey's oldest political party. It was established by the founder of the Turkish Republic, Ghazi Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, on September 9, 1923.
The decision to hold the current congress was made suddenly. On March 23 this year The legally elected mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, was removed from office due to his arrest on corruption charges.
In this situation, the threat of appointing a state administrator of the mayor's office by the executive branch loomed.
To preempt this move, the leader of the HDP, Özgür Özel, announced the convening of an extraordinary congress at a protest rally.
“Based on the powers granted to me by our statute as chairman, I declare that we have decided to convene an extraordinary congress in 15 days, namely on April 6 of this year in accordance with the HDP statute,” said Özel, quoted by the newspaper. "Hürriyet".
Today's congress will be held against the backdrop of the massive protests that began on March 19 in connection with the arrest of Imamoglu, as well as the informal internal presidential candidate elections on March 23, in which over 15 million votes were cast for Imamoglu.
The PKK congress will be held in Ankara, at the "Nazım Hikmet" cultural and information center in the Yeni Mahalle district, which is considered the largest in the Turkish capital. The event will begin at 10 a.m. under the motto ”The will of the people”.
The congress is expected to be attended by around 1,350 delegates from all over the country who have the right to vote.
According to Turkish media, the congress will elect the leader of the PKK, as well as members of the Central Committee and the Executive Bureau.
The current PKK leader Özgür Özel is the candidate with the best chances and is expected to be re-elected to this position, the publications note.
Former chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has abandoned his initial intention to run for the chairmanship, thereby weakening the internal opposition, the "Cumhuriyet" newspaper reported.
The congress's agenda is expected to discuss and outline the “roadmap” about the preparation of Ekrem Imamoglu's upcoming presidential campaign, as well as the initiatives that will be taken to intensify the activities of the HDP against the government with the aim of provoking early elections due to the ”inability of the current government to deal with the economic problems and high inflation in the country”, the Sözcü TV channel states.