IZMIR: Riot police in Turkiye fired tear gas and water cannon to break up a rally called by ousted opposition leader Ozgur Ozel Tuesday, days after a court dismissed him from office.
The protest in the city of Izmir came two days after riot police battered their way into the main opposition CHP’s headquarters in the capital Ankara, firing tear gas and beating party members before throwing them out.
The dramatic scenes followed a shock court ruling on Thursday that overturned a 2023 party primary that elected Ozel.
It was the latest in a string of moves against the CHP, Turkiye’s oldest political party, which scored a major political win over President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AKP in 2024 local elections and has been rising in the polls.
Since the ruling, the party has been in chaos.
