Turkish police storm opposition headquarters after court ousts CHP leader

Turkish riot police fired tear gas and broke through the gates of the Republican People’s Party headquarters in Ankara on Sunday, moving to evict the leadership after authorities ordered enforcement of a court ruling that removed Özgür Özel. The confrontation turned a dispute over party procedures into a direct clash between the state and Turkey’s main opposition party.

The Ankara governor’s office issued the enforcement order after a Turkish court annulled the CHP’s 2023 congress on May 21 and reinstated former chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and his team temporarily. The case centered on allegations of irregularities, including vote-buying claims. Police detained 13 people in a related probe, while supporters and officials barricaded themselves inside the building as crowds and officers gathered outside.

The crisis has unfolded against a broader political crackdown. After the 2024 local elections, the CHP won major cities and emerged as Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s strongest domestic rival. That challenge sharpened further after the March 2025 arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, the CHP’s presidential candidate and one of Erdoğan’s biggest challengers. A separate court action in September 2025 also removed the party’s Istanbul provincial leadership in a similar dispute.

The latest intervention jolted financial markets and deepened concerns about instability, adding to the sense that Turkey’s institutions are being pulled deeper into a fight over control of the opposition. Human Rights Watch called the court decision ordering the removal of the party chair and leadership a deeply damaging blow to the rule of law, a judgment that reflects the gravity of a dispute no longer confined to party politics.

For Turkey’s elections, the message is stark: the main opposition is now battling not only the ruling party but also the legal and administrative machinery of the state. For NATO allies and Western partners, the images from Ankara raise harder questions about how far democratic backsliding has advanced in a country that remains strategically important yet increasingly defined by pressure on political challengers. The standoff over CHP headquarters has become a test of whether courts and police will safeguard democratic competition, or help narrow it.