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Erdoğan Tightens Grip: Riot Police Storm CHP HQ

Riot police stormed the CHP's Ankara headquarters on Sunday and evicted ousted leader Özgür Özel, days after an appeals court annulled the party's 2023 congress and reinstalled Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu -- a takeover of Atatürk's party that the pro-Kurdish DEM party condemned. Under pressure from student protests, Erdoğan reversed his Friday closure of Istanbul Bilgi University. Turkey also joined Gulf states urging Trump to accept an Iran peace deal Israel opposes, as foreign drone support drove Sudan's proxy war past 880 civilian deaths.

Erdoğan's crackdown on the opposition reached a new pitch on Sunday, when riot police fired tear gas and forced their way into the Ankara headquarters of the Republican People's Party (CHP), evicting its ousted leader Özgür Özel. The raid followed a May 21 appeals court ruling that annulled the CHP's 2023 congress -- the internal election Özel had won -- and provisionally reinstalled Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who led the party from 2010 to 2023. Commentary described the move as a hostile takeover of the party founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and another step toward an authoritarian system, and the pro-Kurdish DEM party condemned the ruling on Monday. The CHP, which says its only "crime" was overtaking Erdoğan's AK Party to become Turkey's leading party, has seen hundreds of members detained since 2024, including Istanbul mayor and presidential candidate Ekrem İmamoğlu; his detention triggered the country's largest protests since the 2013 Gezi Park demonstrations.

Amid the pressure, Erdoğan made a rare retreat. After ordering the closure of Istanbul's private Bilgi University on Friday, he reversed the decision on Sunday -- a change recorded in the official gazette -- hours after hundreds of students and lecturers demonstrated outside the campus demanding its reopening.

Turkey also featured in regional diplomacy over the US-Iran war. It was among a group of rival Middle Eastern states -- including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Pakistan -- that have coalesced behind a provisional peace deal with Iran and are urging the Trump administration to accept it despite fierce Israeli opposition; the agreement followed visits to Iran by Pakistani and Qatari officials.

Sudan's civil war, now in its third year, has meanwhile hardened into a regional proxy war, with foreign powers arming both sides largely through drones -- a campaign that killed at least 880 civilians between January and April 2026, the United Arab Emirates being the most prominent backer of the Rapid Support Forces.

Sources