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Turkey's main opposition party holding an extraordinary congress to re-elect its leader
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Özgür Özel. Its rallying support as a party weathers the government's crackdown on the
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country's largest protest movement in years. Turkey cracking down on demonstrations triggered
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by last month's arrest of Istanbul's popular opposition mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, who is
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also a member of Özel's Republican People's Party. Let's speak to our correspondent
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Jasper Mortimer. Let's hear, Jasper, what more can you tell us about this Sunday's meeting
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Yes, well, Özgec Azel was elected leader, chairman of the CHP, the largest opposition party, two years ago
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But in recent months, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been claiming that his election is illegitimate, that at that Congress two years ago, procedures were not followed
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It was an undemocratic election. And President Erdogan even got prosecutors to investigate that Congress
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So, today, the party is re-holding a Congress to elect its chairman and its executive
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The Congress is taking place as we speak. And the party has gone so far as even to summon the same delegates who were present at the 2023 Congress to sort of reenact the election of its executive and its chairman And there is no doubt that who has performed well over the
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deposition and detention of the mayor of Istanbul, will be reelected today
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And Jasper, where do things stand in terms of the crackdown on the opposition
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Well, the detention of the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, continues
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He is still in prison. He is communicating with the outside via his visitors, who post messages on his website
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social media site. But when the party decided about 10 days ago to stop holding nightly protests in Istanbul
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it said instead it would hold weekly protests in cities around the country
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And today will be the first of those rallies. It will be held here on the northern side of Ankara, and it will be starting in a few
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hours' time. is the capital and it is the second biggest city. It has a population of 5 million people
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All right, Jephthah. Thank you very much. Jephthah Mortimer reporting
