Overview
- Riot police used tear gas, batons and rubber bullets to enter and seize the Republican People’s Party (CHP) headquarters in Ankara on Sunday, clearing supporters and party officials from the building.
- The police operation followed a court decision this week that annulled Özgür Özel’s 2023 election as CHP leader and placed former leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu as acting secretary-general under a judiciary-appointed intervention.
- After being removed from the building, Özgür Özel denounced the action as an attack, called for mass mobilization in major cities and led a march toward parliament that drew thousands of supporters.
- The raid is the latest step in a year-long judicial and security campaign against the CHP that has included the arrest of dozens of party mayors and the imprisonment since March 2025 of Istanbul’s former mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu on charges that could carry heavy sentences.
- The takeover increases the chance of large-scale unrest, raises stakes for Turkey’s electoral politics by weakening the main opposition’s organizational base, and spotlights growing international concern about the judiciary’s role in party affairs.