ERBIL, Kurdistan Region of Iraq – Turkey’s pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Equality and Democracy (DEM Party) on Monday said democracy in Turkey is facing a “political crisis” following a police raid on the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) headquarters the day prior, dubbing the attack “shameful and unacceptable.”

On Sunday, Turkish police stormed the opposition party’s headquarters in Ankara to evict leader Ozgur Ozel and his loyalists after a court suspended his leadership days earlier.

A DEM Party delegation, including Co-Chair Tuncer Bakirhan and party spokesperson Aysegul Dogan, visited the CHP at the Turkish parliament on Monday for a “solidarity visit” to Ozel.

In a statement following the visit, Bakirhan warned that “democracy in Turkey is once again facing a political crisis,” adding that the police violence recorded during the unfolding events “is simply shameful and unacceptable.”

Videos circulating online during the raid showed Turkish riot police forcefully entering the building using tear gas as party members and supporters tried to fend them off using banners and assorted items.

Bakirhan said that violence against the country’s main opposition party “is a disgrace to democracy and a legal scandal,” asserting, “We openly condemn and absolutely do not accept this attack on the CHP.”

Suggesting a solution to the tensions, Bakirhan said that “this regime must be grounded in the rule of law and become more democratic,” warning that as long as the rule of law does not serve as a guarantee, “none of us will find ourselves in a safe political environment.”

“As the DEM Party, we do not consider any intervention outside of democratic mechanisms legitimate,” he added.

In a similar statement on Sunday, the DEM Party called the police incursion “a sign that democratic will and institutional legitimacy have been wounded simultaneously.”

The Ankara Regional Court of Appeals on Thursday ruled that the CHP’s November 4-5, 2023, congress, where Ozel defeated longtime party leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu, was invalid due to what the court described as “absolute nullity” as a result of election fraud.

Following the verdict, Ozel said he was "not going anywhere" and will not submit to "the judicial branches of the AK Party [Justice and Development Party]," led by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

After the CHP lost the 2024 Turkish presidential election in a landslide and voted to oust its leadership, Kilicdaroglu, who had led the party for almost 14 years, took a legal case against Ozel, claiming that the congress that saw him replaced had been carried out illegally.

The court on Thursday ordered Ozel, members of the party’s Central Executive Board, Assembly, and High Disciplinary Board to be temporarily removed from their posts until a final ruling is issued.

Erdogan’s administration has heavily cracked down on the CHP after it secured major victories in the 2024 local elections, with party officials having been arrested on myriad charges.