Turkish riot police yesterday stormed the headquarters of the main opposition Republican People’s Party, the CHP, in Ankara, using tear gas and rubber bullets to remove supporters and officials loyal to ousted party leader Özgür Özel. The police intervention followed a court ruling that annulled the CHP’s 2023 leadership congress, which had brought Özel to the leadership of the party, and reinstated former leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.
Özgür Özel was not arrested, but was effectively removed from the party headquarters after the court decision. He has denounced the ruling as a judicial coup against the opposition and later marched with supporters towards parliament, where he vowed to continue resisting the decision. Turkish state media said 13 people had been detained in relation to alleged offences connected to the CHP’s 2023 party congress.
In a speech from the party headquarters before being removed, Özgür Özel said that the CHP was “under attack” and accused the authorities of trying to seize the party building after issuing what he described as an unlawful court decision. He said the party’s “crime” was defeating the AKP and becoming Turkey’s largest party for the first time in 47 years, following the CHP’s strong performance in the 2024 local elections.
Özel gave the statement from inside the CHP headquarters, describing it as “Atatürk’s entrusted office” and saying that the party would not leave voluntarily. He warned that if the police forced them out of the building, the opposition would move its struggle to the streets and squares.
The Republican People’s Party is the party founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, and remains the institutional heir of Turkey’s secular republican tradition.
The raid marks another escalation in President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s growing repression against Turkey’s opposition, especially after the CHP’s strong performance in the 2024 local elections, when it defeated Erdoğan’s AKP in several major cities and emerged as the largest party in the country’s municipal vote. The court decision against Özel follows a broader clampdown on the CHP, including the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu in March 2025 on corruption-related charges, widely denounced by critics as politically motivated.
İmamoğlu, considered Erdoğan’s strongest potential rival in a future presidential election, has been held in prison since his arrest. His detention triggered mass protests across Turkey while Erdoğan’s government is using the judiciary to dismantle electoral competition before the next national election in 2028. Human rights groups, opposition figures and several international observers have repeatedly described the legal campaign against CHP politicians as part of Turkey’s continuing democratic backsliding.
The CHP insists that it remains on course to challenge Erdoğan nationally despite the mounting judicial and police pressure. Özel had led the party through one of its strongest electoral performances in decades, while İmamoğlu remains the opposition’s most prominent presidential figure despite being jailed. The party is now facing a double attack: its leading presidential contender is imprisoned, while its elected party leadership has been removed by court order.
Erdoğan’s government denies political interference in the judiciary, but the timing and scale of the intervention against the CHP have reinforced accusations that Turkey’s next election is already being shaped by courts, police operations and state pressure rather than by open democratic competition.
Newsroom
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