ANKARA: A Turkish court on Thursday rejected the ouster of the Istanbul branch leaders of the country’s main opposition party over alleged irregularities in its leadership congress.
The ruling follows clashes on Monday at the Istanbul headquarters of the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), as protesters tried to stop a court-ordered administrator from entering the building.
The CHP, which won a huge victory over President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP party in 2024 local elections, had vowed to fight the dismissal of its Istanbul branch leadership.
But the party has been facing a growing number of graft investigations since the jailing of Istanbul’s popular mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, seen as the sole candidate with a realistic chance at beating Erdogan at the ballot box.
“The annulation of the Istanbul regional congress has been definitely overturned today,” CHP leader Ozgur Ozel said, ahead of an extraordinary congress set for September 21.
But a lawyer for Gursel Tekin, a former senior CHP member who was named a state-appointed trustee to take control of the party’s Istanbul branch, rejected the ruling, saying on X that “the temporary injunction... remains valid.”
The latest ruling could have an impact on the court ruling expected Monday in Ankara in a separate case aiming to oust the CHP’s national leadership.
If successful, the case alleging vote rigging at the CHP’s November 2023 congress could unseat party leader Ozel and several other senior party figures.
The CHP denies the allegations, which critics see as a politically motivated bid to undermine the party as its popularity has grown.
Turkiye court rejects ouster of opposition party leadership
https://arab.news/jg9q8
Turkiye court rejects ouster of opposition party leadership
- The ruling follows clashes on Monday at the Istanbul headquarters of the opposition Republican People’s Party
- Protesters tried to stop a court-ordered administrator from entering the building
Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon kills 13 people, Lebanese ministry says
- Hamas condemned the attack in a statement saying the strike hit a sports playground and denying that it was a training compound
- Lebanon’s Health Ministry has reported more than 270 people killed and around 850 wounded by Israeli military actions since the ceasefire
SIDON, Lebanon: An Israeli airstrike on a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon on Tuesday killed 13 people and wounded several others, state media and government officials said. It was the deadliest strike on Lebanon since a ceasefire in the Israel-Hezbollah war a year ago.
The drone strike hit a car in the parking lot of a mosque in the Ein el-Hilweh refugee camp on the outskirts of the coastal city of Sidon, the state-run National News Agency said. The Lebanese Health Ministry said 13 people were killed and several others wounded in the airstrike, without giving further details.
Hamas fighters in the area prevented journalists from reaching the scene, as ambulances rushed to evacuate the wounded and the dead.
The Israeli military said it struck a Hamas training compound that was being used to prepare an attack against Israel and its army. It added that the Israeli army would continue to act against Hamas wherever the group operates.
Hamas condemned the attack in a statement saying the strike hit a sports playground and denying that it was a training compound.
Over the past two years, Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon have killed scores of officials from the militant Hezbollah group as well as Palestinian factions such as Hamas.
Saleh Arouri, the deputy political head of Hamas and a founder of the group’s military wing, was killed in a drone strike on a southern suburb of Beirut on Jan. 2, 2024. Several other Hamas officials have been killed in strikes since then.
Hamas led the Oct. 7, 2023 attack on southern Israel that killed about 1,200 people. That sparked Israel’s offensive on the Gaza Strip that killed tens of thousands of Palestinians, according to the Gaza Health Ministry.
A day after the Israel-Hamas war started, Hezbollah began firing rockets toward Israeli posts along the border. Israel responded with shelling and airstrikes in Lebanon, and the two sides became locked in an escalating conflict that became a full-blown war in late September 2024.
That war, the most recent of several conflicts involving Hezbollah over the past four decades, killed more than 4,000 people in Lebanon, including hundreds of civilians, and caused an estimated $11 billion worth of destruction, according to the World Bank. In Israel, 127 people died, including 80 soldiers.
The war ended in late November 2024 with a US-brokered ceasefire. Since then, Israel has carried out scores of airstrikes in Lebanon, saying that Hezbollah is trying to rebuild its capabilities.
Lebanon’s Health Ministry has reported more than 270 people killed and around 850 wounded by Israeli military actions since the ceasefire.
