A court in Ankara ruled Tuesday for the annulment of last year's congress held by dissidents in the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), declaring all decisions made by the congress to be null and void.
The congress, attended by the dissidents of current MHP chairman Devlet Bahçeli, was held on June 19, 2016 to change a party bylaw restricting emergency party leadership caucuses.
A stay of execution ruling had been previously issued for the changes adopted in the congress by another court on June 23 and 24.
The current lawsuit was launched by MHP higher board delegate and Central Executive Board (MYK) member Cemal Enginyurt against the emergency party congress. The Ankara 3rd Court of First Instance ruled for the annulment of the congress and for the continuation of the stay of execution decisions.
The dissidents will be able to appeal the decision at a higher court.
The MHP administration welcomed the decision, while dissidents were highly critical of it. "The congress was canceled. The hearing only lasted 10 minutes. A year has passed for a decision that can be given in 10 minutes. The will of 700 delegates was forsaken," leading dissident candidate Meral Akşener said.
The legal and leadership battle in MHP began after the November 1, 2015 elections, after which the party barely passed the 10 percent national election threshold and lost half of its deputies compared to June 7 elections. Since then, Akşener, Sinan Oğan and Koray Aydın have raised their voices against the party chairman Devlet Bahçeli, who has ruled the party since 1997. They were later joined by vice chairman Ümit Özdağ, and a number of other deputies.
Seeking an extraordinary congress aiming to amend party regulations, which did not allow extraordinary leadership congresses to be held, the trio collected 543 signatures out of the MHP's total 1,242 delegates. This number was enough to call a congress and very close to the required 601 votes to change the regulations.
The trio submitted the signatures to the party, however the party administration refused to gather an extraordinary congress and forced the dissidents to take the matter before the court. A court ruled to appoint trustees to the party, which decided to gather an extraordinary congress on May 15, 2016.
Party officials appealed the verdict, but courts handed down conflicting rulings on May 13, and police prevented a dissident-led convention on May 15.
On May 24, the Supreme Court of Appeals upheld an Ankara civil court decision that gave the green light to a congress held on June 19, which was attended by 752 out of 1,186 party delegates, according to figures provided by the trustee committee.
The congress changed 13 party bylaws, and set July 10 as the date for the leadership congress. However, the party administration applied to the Çankaya Provincial Election Board to cancel the congress, which had ruled to in favor of the party administration. Party dissidents applied to the Supreme Election Board (YSK), which rejected their objection on June 28, setting March 2018 as the final date for a leadership congress as declared by the party administration.
During this process, the party administration accused several candidates of being backed by the Gülen Movement, which was being probed by Turkish authorities at the time for forming an illegal organization through its cadres nestled in the judiciary and police to topple the government through fake evidence and illegal wiretappings. The dissidents rejected the accusations, saying that allegations on ties with Gülenists aimed to defame dissident candidates in the eyes of the public.
Many dissidents were expelled from the party, especially in the tumultuous period after the July 15 coup attempt, despite previous court rulings that annulled earlier expulsions and allowed for their return.
The MHP party administration backed the "yes" camp along with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the dissident camp backed the "no" camp alongside the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) during the April 16, 2017 referendum on constitutional reform and the switch to presidential system. Both camps claimed success in the referendum, in which the "yes" camp narrowly won with 51.41 percent of the votes, which was 10 percentage points lower than the combined AK Party and MHP votes in the November 2015 general elections.