Imamoglu, Populism and the CHP

The Republican People's Party (CHP) is undergoing much change recently. After the controversial resignation of former party leader Baykal, a new party leader, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, a promising candidate popular with the people, was chosen. Prof. Dr. Rona Aybay analyzes the past and the present of the CHP, shedding light on misperceptions about Turkey's oldest existing party.

The unexpected switch of the CHP’s leadership from Deniz Baykal to Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu led to a series of debates about the party’s political future and its new place in the party system of Turkey. Most of the debates have focused on what exactly changed and what remained the same as a result of this switch. Kılıçdaroğlu’s speeches revealed signs for new directions in CHP’s discourse indeed, as they included novel issues such as intra-party democracy and empowering the party’s women and youth branches. The purpose of this policy brief is to propose ideas to the CHP as a social democratic party, so it can be a serious political alternative to the conservative AK Party. The CHP’s major target should be democratization to be achieved at two different levels: (a) institutional and (b) ideological. Institutional democratization requires establishing intra-party democracy, decentralization of power, as well as bringing ideological heterogeneity and political debates back to the party. Ideological democratization is about bringing ‘the left’ back to Turkish politics by embracing a progressive and social democratic discourse. This entails moving leftwards, a de-emphasis of nationalism and the adoption of a more egalitarian, less elitist, more libertarian, and more multiculturalist world vision.

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and the New Republican People’s Party in Turkey, 2023

This book discusses the life and professional struggle of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and the transformation of the CHP under his leadership. It deals with the transformational periods and phases of the CHP, up to the period when Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu became prominent in the party. The CHP’s transformation and how it variously affected its popular standing in public opinion and revealed political liabilities and limitations cumulatively can indicate and explain to what extent political parties are likely to change as leadership changes and different regime governing approaches take hold. Furthermore, this book aims to answer the following questions: How and for what reasons did Kılıçdaroğlu decide to ally with the center-right wing in the CHP? What was the collective impact of the center-right wing in positive and negative terms regarding the CHP’s general identity, especially in historical context? After the 2015 elections, what constituted the shifts and revisions in Kılıçdaroğlu’s ideology and how did they alter the political power of the CHP as a major opposition party? What evidence exists to shed light on his capabilities for building coalitions as a viable option for the possibility of forming a national government in elections?

The New Turkey, 2019

Even in a case where the CHP candidate becomes successful on June 23, the fact is that the German government will have to cooperate with the Ankara administration, led by President Erdogan, until 2023.

To repair the party's bad image in Turkish politics, main opposition CHP held a congress last weekend, in which Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu was re-elected with no difficulty The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) held its 35th ordinary congress this Saturday in Ankara. It was an unusually calm and uncompetitive congress with no challenge to Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, who has been the party chairman since 2010, and he is re-elected for a new term at the helm of the CHP together with almost his entire cadre. The motto of this CHP congress was "Democracy, change and fraternity." Despite its promise for change, this is hardly the first call for change in the CHP. The last 10 years saw several calls and promises from the party leadership to transform, change and open up to embrace the masses. The party has a long-term ambition to open up to right-wing voters, create assertive political proposals and change its political discourse to expand its electoral base and become an alternative political solution.

ELIAMEP, 2022

In this policy paper, I argue that despite serious internal reform, the CHP under Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has been unable to take over the administration of Turkey from President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s AKP for more than ten years, for various and intertwined reasons. In this regard, the transformation of the CHP, its popularity rates and limitations will also tell us to what extent political parties are likely to change under authoritarian regimes. Therefore, I examine this change by focusing on three issues: a) How and in what direction the party has changed from top to bottom in terms of cadres; b) What the change in its cadres tell us about the main problems facing Turkey's domestic politics, especially in the economic sphere; c) What these changes tell us about Turkey’s foreign policy and its position in the world.

Regional & Federal Studies, 2020

ABSTRACT The March 2019 provincial and municipal elections in Turkey consolidated a two-bloc system consisting of an AKP-led alliance in favour of a presidential system and an alliance headed by the CHP which is against a presidential system. An urban–rural cleavage underlies and increases the polarization among Turkey’s voters. The CHP has gained control over the wealthy and populous metropolitan municipalities whereas the AKP still holds majorities in the provincial assemblies. The 2019 local elections also highlight the increasing reliance of the AKP on the MHP to win absolute majorities. This gives the opposition parties hope that they may overcome AKP’s electoral dominance in the national parliament as well as in the provincial and municipal assemblies.

Insight Turkey, 2011

Turkish Studies, 2016

The Peoples’ Democratic Party (Halkların Demokratik Partisi [HDP]) was one of the leading actors in Turkey's double parliamentary elections in 2015. Under the leadership of Selahattin Demirtaş, it has enjoyed great success, crossing the ten percent threshold and entering parliament in the June 7, 2015 elections. Yet the hype was mitigated by the party's poorer results in the November 1, 2015 elections. This electoral performance manifested the strengths as well as the limits of the HDP's ability to maintain its support in a polarized political environment. Yet the HDP remains an indispensable actor for the peaceful resolution of the Kurdish issue.

Insight Turkey, 2014

Ahead of the 2014 local elections, the main opposition, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), developed an aggressive outreach campaign to add new voters to its ranks as the disappearance of its former rivals, the Democratic Left Party (DSP), left the CHP with a monopoly over the Left and the Gülen Movement broke with the ruling AK Party just months before the elections. The election results, however, reaffirmed that the main opposition party remained largely unpopular outside major metropolitan areas, including İstanbul, Ankara and İzmir. On election day, the CHP received less than 5 percent in most of the Southeast and Eastern Anatolia, as its efforts to associate with democracy and freedom proved futile against the backdrop of controversial alliances with extraparliamentary forces.