ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Chairman of Turkey’s Republican People’s Party (CHP) Ozgur Ozel on Sunday came under attack by unknown assailants while leaving a memorial ceremony for late DEM Party MP and Imrali delegate Sirri Sureyya Onder, leading to condemnations by multiple officials in the country. 

Footage of Ozel being attacked by an assailant, later reported by Turkish media to be a man in his 60s, began making the rounds on the internet on Sunday afternoon, where the attacker is seen successfully landing a blow on the opposition leader’s face.

The footage was later followed by another video which shows multiple people swarming and assailing the CHP leader. 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wished Ozel a speedy recovery and condemned the attack during a phone call following the assault. Erdogan expressed “his best wishes and stated that he is closely following the process in order to reveal all aspects of the incident," the presidency’s Director of Communications Fahrettin Altun said in a statement.

The Turkish interior ministry revealed in a statement after the attack that the assailant, a 66-year-old, had previously been convicted of killing two of his own children in 2004, and was serving life before being released on parole in 2020.  

In addition to Erdogan, condemnations followed the incident from numerous Turkish officials, including Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz, the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party’s) spokesperson Omer Celik and Parliamentary Speaker Numan Kurtulmus.

Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan also joined scores of government officials and ministers in extending his “best wishes for a speedy recovery” to the Turkish political leader, slamming the attack as “unacceptable” and a dangerous endeavor  targeting “democratic political culture,” in a statement published on X. 

Ozel was re-elected early in April as CHP’s chairman as the sole candidate left in the running when an opposing candidate withdrew from candidacy under suspicious circumstances, he later went on to win chairmanship by receiving 1171 votes – the entire ballot, after 105 of the original 1276 votes were "invalidated".