The Dark Day of Turkish Politics: A Coup to Free Politics

Politics in Türkiye has seen dark days before. The country witnessed the ruling caliph-sultan collaborating with occupying armies; in the words of Nazım Hikmet, it “saw fire and betrayal.” After the transition to multi-party politics, it was shaken by coups in the Cold War atmosphere. Parliament was shut down, political parties were banned, and politicians were imprisoned; and some of these practices continue today. Yet these coups did not destroy the belief in pluralist politics and elections in Türkiye. Voters showed the maturity to bite their lips if necessary and keep their reactions for the ballot box.

Nor will the police raid on CHP headquarters on 24 May 2026 — and the elected but court-removed party chairman being forced to leave the building amid the use of pepper spray — destroy either the CHP or the understanding of pluralist politics in Türkiye.

But that will not prevent 24 May 2026 from being remembered as one of the dark days of Turkish politics.

What deepened this darkness was that the call for police intervention reportedly came from CHP’s former chairman, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. Like the tree in Aesop’s fable, grieving because the handle of the axe cutting it down was made from one of its own branches…

Kılıçdaroğlu: From Where to Where?

Kılıçdaroğlu led the CHP for 13 years. During that period, Turkish voters went to the polls 13 times, including referendums and local elections. Kılıçdaroğlu came very close to his first electoral victory in the 2023 elections, but fell short. CHP voters and delegates attributed the failure to his decision to nominate himself as presidential candidate, and at the 4–5 November 2023 party congress, they elected Özgür Özel as chairman.

Kılıçdaroğlu saw this as “being stabbed in the back.” Beginning with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s remarks in February 2024, efforts to annul the congress were coordinated by people close to Kılıçdaroğlu.

Meanwhile, under Özel’s leadership, the CHP emerged from the March 2024 local elections as the leading party for the first time in nearly half a century, surpassing the AK Party nationwide.

At this stage, it could be argued that the CHP made a strategic mistake by announcing Ekrem İmamoğlu’s presidential candidacy prematurely. Erdoğan’s response was to appoint Akın Gürlek as Istanbul Chief Public Prosecutor.

The operations targeting İmamoğlu and CHP municipalities proceeded in parallel with the “absolute nullity” case. Kılıçdaroğlu’s release of a video accusing the CHP of corruption immediately before the annulment ruling announced on 21 May was interpreted as a sign that he had prior knowledge of the decision.

Returning to His Party By a Judicial Coup

Was it political ambition — or more simply a desire for revenge — that turned “the Kılıçdaroğlu who was once the hope of the people” into a figure despised not only by the CHP but by opposition voters more broadly, after his successor was removed not through elections but through what resembled a coup-like court ruling, and forced out by police intervention?

Or was it, as he himself claims, an effort to “save” the CHP from the “foreign powers” allegedly represented by İmamoğlu — or, in the language used by his circle, from the “mütegallibe,” the self-serving power clique?

Or was it, as Özel claims, an inability to accept losing his seat through elections, leading him to reclaim it through what he himself had criticized as “Erdoğan’s judiciary,” even at the cost of paving the way for Erdoğan’s re-election?

Whatever the motive, the annulment ruling of 21 May was a coup to free political competition in Türkiye, and the police operation of 24 May was its embodiment in practice.

From the very first day, it became clear that returning to the seat he had lost through elections by means of a judicial intervention, and attempting to purge the election-winning CHP leadership, would benefit neither himself, nor the CHP, nor Erdoğan. Indeed, even MPs who had supported him issued statements criticizing his call for police intervention.

How, one wonders, will Kılıçdaroğlu be remembered in the future history of Turkish politics?