Turkish police fired tear gas and pepper spray to disperse protesters outside the Istanbul branch of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) on Monday, after a court ruling unseated its provincial leadership and appointed a trustee replacement. The police have also detained between 10 and 20 people at the scene, as per AFP.
The court has appointed veteran member Gursel Tekin of the CHP as interim chair, a decision that has angered supporters and prompted the party to seek his expulsion.
Clashes erupted as up to 200 protesters, including several lawmakers, gathered outside the building, many having stayed overnight. At the same time, riot police set up barricades ahead of the court-appointed trustee’s arrival on Monday.
Why the protests
The unrest followed a court ruling last week that suspended CHP’s Istanbul chair, Ozgur Celik, and nearly 200 officials over alleged irregularities in the party’s 2023 congress, a decision that also triggered a 5.5 percent drop in the stock market.
The move comes amid a broader legal crackdown on the opposition, which has seen hundreds of CHP members targeted, including Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, Turkey’s president Erdogan’s main rival, whose arrest in March sparked Turkey’s biggest protests in a decade.
The CHP rejects the allegations as politically motivated efforts to weaken the opposition. Erdogan’s government maintains that the judiciary operates independently and denies interfering in legal processes.
How the opposition reacted
At a party event in Istanbul, CHP chairman Ozgur Ozel urged citizens to rally against the court ruling and the broader crackdown on his party, denouncing the police barricades and restrictions placed around the party’s headquarters.
“From here, I invite all democrats and CHP members who hear my words and voice to protect the home of Ataturk in Istanbul,” he said, referring to Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey, as reported by Reuters.
“Shame on those who have put our home under police siege, who brought police special forces to our Istanbul provincial headquarters ... to those trying to cancel our Istanbul provincial congress via unauthorised courts and seat an appointee there.”
Social media restrictions
Social media platforms such as X, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, and Signal were all throttled by late Sunday, according to monitoring groups like IFOD and NetBlocks.
Ali Yerlikaya, the interior minister, defended the police response, writing on X that authorities would act “resolutely” to enforce court rulings and maintain order.
"With the interim court decision.. CHP Istanbul's provincial leader and its board have been temporarily removed and a temporary board appointed in their place. Disregarding court decisions and trying to get people onto the streets clearly challenges the rule of law," Yerlikaya posted on X.
What comes next
A separate Ankara court will rule on the validity of the CHP’s 2023 main congress later this month, which elected Ozgur Ozel as national leader. If the court rules against it, former leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu could be reinstated, despite past criticism of his leadership, as cited by AP.
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