Tear gas and rubber bullets were fired inside the headquarters of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) in Ankara, where party officials and supporters, including leader Özgür Özel, were holed up for days. Footage from local media showed police breaking through a makeshift barricade.
With Özel as leader, the CHP massively outperformed Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in the 2024 municipal elections. But the opposition has since faced a political crackdown, including the arrest of a key Erdoğan rival, and the suspension and detention of CHP-affiliated local government officials.
Özel later emerged from the building and led a march with CHP supporters toward the Parliament building, some 6 km (4 mi) away. “We will take back our headquarters, of course, we will take back our paternal home,” he told the supporters, according to local news agency T24. “Until that day, we are in the squares, we are in the streets.”
On May 21, a Turkish appeals court made a rare move to overturn the results of an internal CHP leadership election in 2023 that Özel had won. The court annulled the CHP’s 2023 Congress, overturning a lower court’s verdict last year against claims of irregularities surrounding Özel’s election.
Under Kılıçdaroğlu, the CHP failed to win national elections. Kılıçdaroğlu’s string of election losses prompted Ekrem İmamoğlu, a prominent CHP figure and Istanbul’s mayor who was seen as a key rival to Erdoğan, to lead a change in party leadership. İmamoğlu backed Özel, who was elected the party’s leader in November 2023. But former and current members within the CHP opposed to Özel’s leadership questioned his victory, and prosecutors alleged that Özel secured his victory by buying votes.
Özel and his party allies said they will appeal the court ruling, which threatens the CHP’s chances of defeating Erdoğan, who has been in power for more than two decades. After the ruling, crowds reportedly gathered outside the CHP headquarters, and members held meetings about a way forward. A presidential election isn’t due until 2028, but Erdoğan can call for an early one.
As Özel left the party headquarters, T24 reported that chanters outside yelled, “Fallen Kemal,” “Traitor Kemal,” and “Kılıçdaroğlu is the hope of the AKP.”
The CHP’s role in Türkiye
The CHP, which was unpopular in the 1990s but improved its image in recent years, owing largely to the administrative performance of its affiliated local government officials like Istanbul’s İmamoğlu, has posed a threat to Erdoğan’s AKP after edging it out in local elections in 2024.
CHP-linked mayors of other cities have also faced corruption allegations, and several remain jailed in what observers say is an attempt to curb the party’s gains.
Some observers say Erdoğan, who has been accused of embracing authoritarianism since coming to power in 2003, could take advantage of the fomenting split in the CHP to call for new elections. Presidents for Türkiye are limited to two terms, though Erdoğan can secure another five-year term if an early election is called.
En route to Türkiye’s Grand National Assembly on Sunday, Özel spoke to supporters in the National Sovereignty Park, and urged them to support another reestablishment of the party.
“The coup plotters shut down this party, but it reopened on Sept. 9, 1992, and has continued its activities ever since,” Özel said. “On May 21, 2026, the judicial and legislative branches of the AK Party shut down the CHP once again. I invite you to the third reopening of the party.”
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