Police stormed the offices of Turkey’s main opposition CHP party on Sunday, firing tear gas and rubber bullets at a crowd of party supporters and officials gathered outside the gates.
It was a violent end to a standoff that had been going on for several hours between members of the Republican Peoples’ Party, or CHP, and its new court-appointed leadership.
Footage taken by local media in and around the building, in the capital Ankara, show huge clouds of tear gas with riot police storming through the premises.
Tension had been rising since Thursday when an appeals court on nullified the election of Özgür Özel as party chairperson in November 2023.
The ruling said he should be replaced by Kemal Kilicdaroglu, his predecessor, who led the party for 13 years but never won any national elections.
Meanwhile, Ozel, in his first and only election as party leader, delivered a decisive blow to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party in the 2024 municipal polls.
The opposition says the decision was politically motivated to weaken the party as it struggles under waves of legal cases targeting its members and elected officials.
The next presidential election is due in 2028, but Erdogan can call for an early vote. His main challenger, Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu a CHP member, has been imprisoned since March last year and is due to stand trial for corruption charges.
Many observers have said the legal cases against the CHP — mostly centered on corruption allegations — are aimed at neutralizing the party ahead of the next election. The government insists that Turkey’s courts are impartial and act independently of political pressure.
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The vast majority of the party has rallied behind Ozel. He and most of the party having been inside the CHP headquarters in the capital Ankara since Thursday’s ruling, with the new administration unable to enter. The rival teams were supposed to meet Sunday afternoon to figure a way out of the impasse.
Local media reported that a crowd formed outside the office that Ozel claimed were not CHP members but were sent to intimidate. Kilicdaroglu’s lawyer sent a request to Ankara police to assist in vacating the building. The Ankara Governor’s office released a statement approving the request.
