Police raid offices of Turkey’s opposition party, firing tear gas and rubber bullets

ANKARA, Turkey — Police storm the offices of Turkey’s main opposition CHP party, 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.

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 report 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.

Here is police in Ankara breaking the CHP headquarters gate after Kilicdaroglu resorted the police violence to seize the building pic.twitter.com/0DtdqXBPWG

— Ragıp Soylu (@ragipsoylu) May 24, 2026