24.05.2026 17:50
After Özgür Özel and his team left the CHP headquarters, which was evacuated by police intervention, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's team entered the building. Their first action was to remove the hung photos of Özgür Özel as the party chairman from the wall and replace them with photos of Kılıçdaroğlu.
The Republican People's Party (CHP) is experiencing the greatest legitimacy and leadership crisis in its history. Following the Ankara Regional Court of Justice's ruling of "absolute nullity" for the 38th Ordinary Congress, a literal breaking point occurred today at the party headquarters.
POLICE INTERVENED, DOORS WERE BROKEN
After the court temporarily suspended Özgür Özel and his administration, transferring duties to Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and the former management, tensions between the parties peaked. Following Özgür Özel and his team's announcement that they would not leave the building, police forces moved in for evacuation based on a request from Kılıçdaroğlu's lawyer Celal Çelik and instructions from the Ankara Governor's Office.
HARSH INTERVENTION AGAINST PARTY MEMBERS
Police teams cut the chains at the parking lot entrance with bolt cutters and broke down the iron doors to enter the headquarters garden. They carried out a harsh intervention against party members resisting inside the building and in the garden, using pepper spray, gas canisters, and plastic bullets.
Meanwhile, Özgür Özel, who received the eviction notice brought by enforcement officers who went up to his office, tore the document, saying, "They destroyed the ancestral home for this."
ÖZGÜR ÖZEL'S PHOTOGRAPH WAS REMOVED
After the police intervention, the headquarters building was completely evacuated, and administration was handed over to Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's team, who regained the title of General Chairman per the court decision. Upon Kılıçdaroğlu's team entering the building, the first action was a symbolic move. Özgür Özel's photograph was removed from the wall where all general chairmen's photos, starting with Atatürk, were hung.
This action became the clearest image of the management change at the headquarters.
ÖZGÜR ÖZEL AND MPs MARCH TOWARDS THE PARLIAMENT
Forced to leave the building, Özgür Özel used harsh language in his statement at the headquarters exit:
"We are leaving to take back the ancestral home in such a way that no one can ever touch it again. We said don't do it, don't be part of the plan to hand over the party to the AK Party due to personal ambitions and because you couldn't accept a defeat. We couldn't make ourselves heard."
Following the statement, Özgür Özel, along with his Central Executive Board members, deputies, and a large group of party supporters backing him, began a protest march towards the Turkish Grand National Assembly.