ALBAWABA - The Republican People's Party (CHP), a main opposition party in Turkey, organized rallies in Istanbul on Sunday amid Turkey's crackdown on the party.
According to Reuters, Turkish police placed barricades around the CHP headquarters in the city, triggering anger of the party's head, Özgür Özel, who labelled the move a "siege".
On X, Özgür Özel wrote: "Dear Minister of Interior, I nor any other official from my party are calling people to the streets or violence."
He added, "It is you who are not allowing our party members into our own building, leaving people on the streets, creating a security issue by doing so, and trying to pit the state’s police against citizens with unlawful orders!"
The Republican People's Party faced a wave of crackdown operations in Turkey, which targeted a number of its members, including Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who was arrested last March.
Ekrem Imamoglu, who is known to be the top rival for Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, was taken by the police from his month before about 5 months. His arrest was met by the biggest demonstrations, Turkey has faced in about a decade.
Videos and photos from the protests yesterday were shared on social media, showing a number of people rallying in the streets and attempting to break through the barriers set up by the police around the headquarters of the party.
Al Jazeera reported that tensions escalated after a Turkish court ruled last Tuesday to annul the results of the 2023 Republican People's Party (CHP) congress in Istanbul and dismiss the party's elected leadership, after concluding that cash payments had swayed delegates' votes.
Thousands gathered late Sept. 3, 2025, to slam a court's decision to oust the main opposition CHP's Istanbul leadership amid allegations of graft. The party, which won a huge victory over Erdogan's AKP in the 2024 local elections, decried the move as a "judicial coup" and defiantly vowed to fight back.
