FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
After Imamoglu's imprisonment, Erdogan also hits the main opposition party
Turkey is experiencing another wave of political tension, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is accused of increasingly openly suppressing the opposition and using state institutions to neutralize his political opponents.
Turkish police used tear gas and water cannons to disperse a protest organized by the ousted leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), Özgür Özel, just days after a court removed him from the party leadership.
According to Özel, special police had also forcibly entered the CHP headquarters in Ankara, using tear gas and violence against party members.
The event is considered the latest blow to the CHP — Turkey's oldest party and the opposition force that achieved a significant victory over Erdogan's AKP party in the 2024 local elections.
It all started after a surprise court ruling that annulled the 2023 internal elections, through which Özel had taken over the CHP leadership. The decision returned his rival Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, a figure seen by many as politically exhausted, to the party leadership.
But the opposition sees this as a direct interference by the government in the internal life of the party.
" This is not an internal issue of the CHP. This is a battle between the people and Erdogan. They are trying to stop the party that is marching towards power ," Özel declared during the protest in Izmir.
Thousands of protesters took to the streets waving Turkish flags and chanting anti-government slogans, while police surrounded the central Cumhuriyet Square and attempted to disperse the crowd with water cannons.
" President Özgür, free Turkey! " the protesters chanted.
The political crisis comes just a few months after the arrest of Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, Erdogan's strongest political rival and the CHP's presidential candidate.
Imamoglu is in prison on charges that the opposition and many international observers consider politically motivated.
His arrest was seen as an attempt by Erdogan to neutralize the opposition's most popular figure ahead of the upcoming presidential election.
Özel directly linked the attack on the CHP to Imamoglu's imprisonment.
" Just as he imprisoned the presidential candidate who could have defeated him, now he is trying to shut down the party that could have defeated him ," he declared.
According to the opposition, Erdogan is using the courts, police and state institutions to control the political scene and weaken any force that could threaten his power.
The decision against Özel is related to allegations of vote-buying in the CHP's 2023 internal elections, a case that was previously dismissed by a court in Ankara for lack of evidence, but was later reinstated on appeal.
For many analysts in Turkey, recent developments indicate that Erdogan is entering an even more aggressive phase of political control, while the opposition is struggling to survive amid judicial pressure, arrests and direct state intervention. / Pamphlet
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