Hundreds of Turkish riot police used tear gas and forced their way into the Ankara headquarters of the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) on Sunday after a court removed the party’s leadership, Agence France-Presse reported.
Party members had blocked the entrances of the building, defying a court order issued Thursday as part of an investigation into the CHP.
Police moved in to remove party leader Özgür Özel after supporters of former chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu tried to enter the headquarters.
Human Rights Watch on Saturday warned that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s government was undermining Turkish democracy through “abusive tactics” against the CHP.
Turkish authorities last year jailed İstanbul Mayor Ekrem İmamoğlu, Erdoğan’s main political rival and the CHP’s candidate for the presidential election scheduled for 2028.
The court order on Thursday annulled Özel’s victory in the CHP’s 2023 leadership election and named Kılıçdaroğlu as interim leader.
Kılıçdaroğlu led the CHP for years but lost several elections to Erdoğan before Özel replaced him at the party congress in November 2023.
“The Republican People’s Party will from now on be on the streets or in the squares,” Özel said as he was forced out of the building.
“We will march towards the seat of power,” he said as he walked toward parliament surrounded by supporters.
Kılıçdaroğlu’s supporters had tried to push their way into the building before police were ordered to intervene and take control of the headquarters.
Similar scenes took place last year in İstanbul, when courts appointed an administrator to take charge of the CHP’s provincial offices.
Human Rights Watch called the court order “the latest deeply damaging blow to the rule of law, democracy and human rights” in Turkey.
