ANKARA – 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.
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Footage taken by local media in the courtyard and inside the building show huge clouds of tear gas with riot police storming through the premises, before journalists were removed by the police. Correspondents who had been in the building during the raid reported that doors and furniture were destroyed.
Tension had been rising since Thursday when an appeals court on Thursday nullified the election of Ozgur Ozel as party chairperson in November 2023, suspending him and members of the party’s executive board.
Immediately after the raid began, Ozel posted a 3-minute video on social media in which he said, “We are under attack. Our crime? To make our party Turkey’s number one party after 47 years. Our crime? Defeating the Justice and Development Party," referring to the AKP party led by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“We will resist here till the end. And if they forcibly remove us, we’ll resume our march towards (becoming) the administration in the square," he said.
The court ruling said Ozel 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 Erdogan’s 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 Imamoglu, a CHP member, has been imprisoned since March last year and is on trial on 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.
The vast majority of the party has rallied behind Ozel. He and most of the party had 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.
Early on Sunday, a crowd gathered outside the office, watched by a growing police presence. In his social media video, Ozel said those outside had been sent to intimidate CHP members.
Kilicdaroglu’s lawyer, Celal Celik, sent a request to Ankara police to assist in vacating the building. The Ankara Governor’s office released a statement approving the request.
The police raid comes at the start of a nine-day holiday for the Muslim festival of Eid al-Adha, when many people are on vacation and out of the big cities.
Erdogan has ruled Turkey, first as prime minister and then as president, since 2003. His electoral record suffered a setback in 2019, when the CHP seized control of several major cities in local elections. In Istanbul, Imamoglu emerged as a popular and charismatic figure who many felt could successfully topple Erdogan.