A delegation from Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party) visited Özgür Özel, the ousted leader of the main opposition, in parliament on Monday in a show of support after a court-backed leadership change at the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and a police operation that forced Özel and his supporters out of party headquarters.
The delegation, led by DEM Party Co-chair Tuncer Bakırhan, met with Özel at the CHP parliamentary group offices. The visit came on the first workday after Özel said the party’s parliamentary offices would function as its new headquarters.
Özel, the ousted CHP chairman, was elected the party’s parliamentary group chair on Saturday.
“We started our first workday here today,” Özel said. “Last night, we held our first group meeting with our lawmakers.”
An appeals court in Ankara last week annulled the CHP’s 2023 intraparty election, which had brought Özel to the chairmanship, and ordered former chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and his former party administration to return to office as an interim measure.
The ruling declared the congress legally void, a decision known in Turkish law as “absolute nullity.” It also removed Özel and the party administration elected at the congress.
On Sunday police entered CHP headquarters in Ankara after party officials and supporters refused to leave the building. Riot police used tear gas during the operation, while CHP lawmakers and supporters accused the authorities of using force to carry out a political takeover of the country’s main opposition party.
The CHP, Turkey’s oldest political party and the main opposition to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), has been under mounting legal pressure since winning control of major cities in the March 2024 local elections.
The party’s İstanbul mayor, Ekrem İmamoğlu, Erdoğan’s most powerful rival, has been jailed since March 2025 on charges widely denounced by the opposition as politically motivated. Other CHP-run municipalities have also faced investigations, arrests and trustee-related pressure.
