On the afternoon of May 24, Turkish police entered the headquarters of the Republican People’s Party (CHP)—Turkey’s oldest party, established by the republic’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk—and forcefully evacuated the building.
This operation marks another step in the crackdown orchestrated by the judiciary, which has effectively lost all independence from the government, against the party since its victory in the 2024 local elections, when it became a tangible threat to the continued rule of President Erdoğan and his party. Numerous CHP mayors have been arrested and imprisoned, including Ekrem İmamoğlu, the Mayor of Istanbul, who is considered Erdoğan's primary rival and has been jailed since March 2025.
Last week, a court issued an unprecedented ruling, annulling the results of the 2023 CHP convention during which the party leadership was replaced, and reinstating the previous leadership. The decision was widely perceived as an attempt to neutralize a political threat and reinstall politicians who would be far more convenient for the president. After the elected CHP leadership refused to comply with the ruling, the police were deployed. The elected party leader was ultimately forced to vacate the CHP headquarters and called on his supporters to take to the streets in protest. However, given the regime's control over the police, the failure of previous protests, and the widespread exhaustion within Turkish society, it is difficult to gauge the prospects of public mobilization.
This reality is creating chaos within the Turkish opposition: competition between an elected leader enjoying public support and a leader reinstated by court order who therefore holds the party’s legal and administrative authority, while the threat of additional legal proceedings against opposition politicians looms in the background. This chaos could affect the Turkish political system until the general elections scheduled for 2028.
More profoundly, the latest measures against the CHP constitute a clear escalation in the Turkish regime’s conduct toward its rivals and are accelerating Turkey’s transformation into a consolidated authoritarian state.
It is difficult to separate this deterioration from recent developments in the international arena, particularly the growing strength of Turkey and Erdoğan. The Turkish president enjoys clear support from his American counterpart, Trump, who has shown little interest in the erosion of democracy in Turkey. At the same time, European countries, grappling with a multidimensional geopolitical crisis and viewing Turkey as a vital partner in addressing it, prefer to turn a blind eye to Turkey’s internal situation so as not to jeopardize the deepening cooperation with Ankara, including in the security domain.
In this context, the only significant negative international response to the recent events in Turkey may come from the markets. The growing perception of arbitrariness within the judicial system could deter foreign investors, further exacerbating Turkey’s ongoing economic crisis — a crisis that has intensified even further by the war with Iran.
On the afternoon of May 24, Turkish police entered the headquarters of the Republican People’s Party (CHP)—Turkey’s oldest party, established by the republic’s founding father, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk—and forcefully evacuated the building.
This operation marks another step in the crackdown orchestrated by the judiciary, which has effectively lost all independence from the government, against the party since its victory in the 2024 local elections, when it became a tangible threat to the continued rule of President Erdoğan and his party. Numerous CHP mayors have been arrested and imprisoned, including Ekrem İmamoğlu, the Mayor of Istanbul, who is considered Erdoğan's primary rival and has been jailed since March 2025.
Last week, a court issued an unprecedented ruling, annulling the results of the 2023 CHP convention during which the party leadership was replaced, and reinstating the previous leadership. The decision was widely perceived as an attempt to neutralize a political threat and reinstall politicians who would be far more convenient for the president. After the elected CHP leadership refused to comply with the ruling, the police were deployed. The elected party leader was ultimately forced to vacate the CHP headquarters and called on his supporters to take to the streets in protest. However, given the regime's control over the police, the failure of previous protests, and the widespread exhaustion within Turkish society, it is difficult to gauge the prospects of public mobilization.
This reality is creating chaos within the Turkish opposition: competition between an elected leader enjoying public support and a leader reinstated by court order who therefore holds the party’s legal and administrative authority, while the threat of additional legal proceedings against opposition politicians looms in the background. This chaos could affect the Turkish political system until the general elections scheduled for 2028.
More profoundly, the latest measures against the CHP constitute a clear escalation in the Turkish regime’s conduct toward its rivals and are accelerating Turkey’s transformation into a consolidated authoritarian state.
It is difficult to separate this deterioration from recent developments in the international arena, particularly the growing strength of Turkey and Erdoğan. The Turkish president enjoys clear support from his American counterpart, Trump, who has shown little interest in the erosion of democracy in Turkey. At the same time, European countries, grappling with a multidimensional geopolitical crisis and viewing Turkey as a vital partner in addressing it, prefer to turn a blind eye to Turkey’s internal situation so as not to jeopardize the deepening cooperation with Ankara, including in the security domain.
In this context, the only significant negative international response to the recent events in Turkey may come from the markets. The growing perception of arbitrariness within the judicial system could deter foreign investors, further exacerbating Turkey’s ongoing economic crisis — a crisis that has intensified even further by the war with Iran.