ANKARA (Reuters) - Turkey's main opposition party, already battered by an unprecedented legal crackdown, could see its leader ousted by a court on Monday in what some see as a test of the country's
Turkish Court Postpones Decision on Opposition Leader Amid Crisis
Implications of the Court's Decision
By Huseyin Hayatsever
Political Context
ANKARA (Reuters) - A Turkish court delayed on Monday a decision on whether to oust the main opposition leader and annul his party's 2023 congress over alleged irregularities, in a case that has already deepened the country's political crisis.
Public Response
The judge in Ankara adjourned the case to October 24.
Impact on Turkish Economy
Hundreds of Republican People's Party (CHP) members, including Erdogan's main political rival, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, have been jailed pending trial in a separate, sprawling legal probe into alleged graft and terrorism links.
If the court rules next month to annul the CHP's congress, that would effectively strip Ozgur Ozel, the party chairman, of the title that he won there.
The case, seen as a test of Turkey's shaky balance between democracy and autocracy, threatens to deepen disarray and infighting in the opposition camp, boosting President Tayyip Erdogan's chances of extending his 22-year rule.
The centrist CHP, which denies the charges against it, is level with Erdogan's Islamist-rooted, conservative AK Party (AKP) in polls. Ozel, 50, its combative, hoarse-voiced leader, has risen to prominence since Imamoglu's detention.
Anti-Erdogan street protests have flared in recent days ahead of the court ruling, and the case has badly rattled Turkish assets and the lira currency. The lira strengthened a little after Monday's adjournment decision.
The opposition, human rights groups and some European leaders say the crackdown on the CHP is politically motivated and anti-democratic, charges rejected by the government, which says that Turkey's judiciary is independent.
(Additional reporting and writing by Jonathan Spicer; Editing by Daren Butler, Clarence Fernandez and Gareth Jones)
