Turkish riot police forced their way into the Ankara headquarters of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) on Sunday, launching tear gas and using rubber bullets after supporters of removed party leader Özgür Özel barricaded themselves inside the building. The confrontation followed a Turkish appeals court ruling that annulled the results of the CHP’s 2023 internal congress, stripping Özel of the chairmanship and reinstating former party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu in his place, according to Roya News.
The standoff began on Sunday morning when Özel’s supporters clashed with police outside the party’s headquarters in the capital. Hours later, riot officers toppled a locked iron gate and entered the building, where supporters had erected barricades inside. Witnesses told local media that police deployed tear gas to disperse party members inside the premises. Video footage circulating online showed tear gas spreading through the building’s interior as CHP supporters shouted slogans and threw objects toward advancing riot officers.
Özel denounced the court’s decision as a “judicial coup” and refused to vacate the headquarters. “I will remain here day and night,” he said, according to local media reports. He called for an emergency party congress to be convened as soon as possible, framing the legal ruling as an illegitimate attempt to remove a democratically elected party leadership.
In a direct counter to the court’s order, CHP lawmakers convened and elected Özel as the leader of the party’s parliamentary group — a move that kept him in a formal leadership role even as the judiciary restored Kılıçdaroğlu to the party chairmanship. The dual-leadership standoff left the CHP effectively split between a court-recognised chair and one backed by the party’s sitting MPs.
The Turkish appeals court ruled that Özel’s election as CHP chairman at the party’s 2023 congress was procedurally invalid, making Kılıçdaroğlu’s reinstatement legally binding, Roya News reported. Kılıçdaroğlu, who led the CHP for over a decade and ran as the opposition’s presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, had been replaced by Özel following that electoral defeat.
The CHP is Türkiye’s main opposition party and the primary parliamentary challenger to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Over the past year, dozens of CHP officials have reportedly been arrested, investigated, or removed from their positions, according to Roya News. Among the most prominent cases is that of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, widely regarded as Erdoğan’s strongest political rival, who has faced a series of legal proceedings that critics say are designed to prevent him from running for president.
The Turkish government has accused CHP figures of involvement in corruption networks. The opposition party has rejected those allegations entirely, describing them as politically motivated efforts to suppress dissent ahead of future elections, Roya News reported.
Sunday’s raid drew immediate condemnation from within the CHP. The party’s lawmakers framed the police action as an extension of what they describe as systematic judicial pressure on opposition institutions. No statement from the Turkish government or the Interior Ministry addressing the raid had been issued at the time of publication.
Regional and Political Impact
The confrontation places Türkiye’s opposition movement under its most acute internal strain in years. The CHP now faces a simultaneous legal crisis and a leadership dispute that divides its parliamentary wing from the court-imposed chairmanship. If Kılıçdaroğlu assumes full operational control of the party, it would represent a significant reversal for a faction that had moved to distance itself from his leadership following the 2023 election loss.
For the broader opposition, the episode raises questions about whether legal mechanisms are being used to reshape the political landscape in advance of Türkiye’s next election cycle. The İmamoğlu case had already drawn international attention to the judiciary’s role in Turkish politics; Sunday’s raid will likely intensify that scrutiny.
Background
The CHP was founded in 1923 by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and is the oldest political party in Türkiye. Kılıçdaroğlu led the party from 2010 until 2023, when he lost the presidential election to Erdoğan in a runoff. Özel succeeded him following a party congress later that year. İmamoğlu won the Istanbul mayoral election in 2019 in a vote that was initially annulled before he won again in a re-run, defeating the AKP candidate by a wider margin. His subsequent legal troubles have made him a symbol of the CHP’s confrontation with the governing party.
What Happens Next
Özel has called for an urgent CHP congress, which would allow party members to officially re-elect a leader and possibly overturn the court ruling through an internal procedure. The newly court-reinstated Kılıçdaroğlu is expected to assert control over party structures, including its headquarters and administrative apparatus. Legal challenges to the appeals court ruling remain a likely next step for Özel’s camp. The CHP’s parliamentary group, which has backed Özel, will continue to operate under his leadership in the legislature regardless of the internal party dispute. Roya News reported that the political tensions are expected to deepen as both sides pursue parallel claims to party authority.
