On a tense Sunday in Ankara, hundreds of Turkish riot police officers launched a dramatic incursion into the national headquarters of Turkey’s largest opposition bloc, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), deploying tear gas to break through barricades erected by defiant party members just days after a court ordered the removal of the party’s democratically elected leadership. The violent raid marks the latest escalation in a sustained crackdown on political opposition led by long-serving President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, intensifying fears over the erosion of democratic norms in Turkey ahead of the 2028 national elections.