Police forces have stormed and surrounded the headquarters of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) in Ankara, using tear gas and plastic bullets to disperse crowds resisting the enforcement of a court ruling that annulled the party’s last congress and reinstated former leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. The dramatic scenes outside the building mark a dangerous escalation in what CHP leader Özgür Özel and his supporters describe as a “judicial coup” aimed at seizing control of the country’s oldest opposition party through the courts and the police.
In the early hours around the CHP’s Ankara headquarters, police units were heavily deployed after the Ankara appeals court declared the party’s 38th Congress invalid, overturning Özel’s 2023 election and ordering Kılıçdaroğlu restored as chairman. As tensions climbed, Ankara’s Governor’s Office announced that it had instructed security forces to implement the court’s decision, framing the operation as the simple execution of a binding judicial order. Shortly afterwards, officers advanced on the complex, broke through the main gate and fired volleys of tear gas and plastic projectiles at party members and supporters packed into the forecourt, turning the entrance into what local broadcasters described as a “war zone.”
The showdown is the most visible flashpoint yet in a deepening power struggle inside the CHP and a broader confrontation between Turkey’s embattled opposition and state institutions widely seen as aligned with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Özel’s leadership team had vowed not to vacate the building despite the court order, calling the ruling an attack on party democracy and a warning shot to all opponents of the government. Around the headquarters, thousands of party officials, MPs and grassroots members converged to form a human barrier, chanting slogans against “judicial coups” and pledging to “defend the people’s will.”
Inside the besieged building, Özel delivered a defiant statement as police pressure mounted, describing the headquarters as the movement’s “family home” and accusing the authorities of “tearing down the father’s house” to overturn the result of an internal party election they could not win at the ballot box. According to Turkish outlets, Özel publicly tore up the written notice served on him to enforce the ruling, declaring that he would not recognize “an unlawful decision imposed with batons and gas” and promising to remain in the building “day and night” with his colleagues. “We will protect our father’s home; we will stay in our headquarters throughout the holiday,” he said in an earlier statement now echoed in tonight’s standoff.
On the opposing side of the party split, Kılıçdaroğlu’s camp moved swiftly to translate the court victory into physical control of the building. His lawyer, Celal Çelik, formally petitioned Ankara police to hand over the headquarters, arguing that even CHP lawmakers had been barred from entering by Özel’s team and asking security forces to ensure the premises were transferred to the reinstated leadership. Some MPs close to Kılıçdaroğlu who arrived at the scene complained they were not allowed inside and later told reporters they were “pulling back” as clashes escalated, underscoring the depth of the rift within the party.
As images of officers cutting through metal gates and dragging gas-choked activists away from the entrance spread across social media, opposition figures and rights advocates denounced the operation as an “unlawful siege” of Turkey’s main opposition force. Senior CHP MPs such as Ali Mahir Başarır alleged an attempted “armed raid” on the party, while others accused the government of using the judiciary and security forces to re-engineer the opposition ahead of future national contests. International outlets, including Reuters, have highlighted the crisis as a new phase in the erosion of democratic checks and balances in a key NATO member, warning that the combination of court interventions and street-level force could inflame political polarization and further shake investor confidence.
With both factions digging in and Özel calling on supporters to maintain a vigil around the headquarters, Turkey now faces the prospect of a prolonged institutional showdown that plays out not only in appeal courts and party committees, but on the streets of the capital under the shadow of riot police and clouds of tear gas.