Riot police in Turkey have fired a water cannon and teargas to break up a rally called by the ousted opposition leader Özgür Özel days after a court dismissed him from office. Özel called the lunchtime rally in İzmir as Turkey was poised to shut down for the four-day Eid al-Fitr holiday, which begins on Wednesday.
On Sunday, riot police had battered their way into the main opposition CHP’s headquarters in the capital, Ankara, firing teargas and beating party members before throwing them out, Özel said. A shock court ruling last Thursday overturned a 2023 party primary that elected Özel. It was the latest in a string of moves against the CHP, Turkey’s oldest political party, which scored a win over Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s ruling AKP in 2024 local elections and has been rising in the polls.