soL English

The Republican People’s Party (CHP) is the main opposition party in Turkey. The party has become the main opposition party by taking the second biggest share of the votes at the parliamentary elections in 2007. The position of the party at political spectrum is described as the “center left”. The leader of the party is Deniz Baykal.

The roots of CHP goes back to the foundation years of the Turkish Republic. The founders of CHP were also the cadres those gathered under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and took part in the struggle to save Turkey from imperialist invasion and dissolve the monarchy. The party was named as “People’s Party” on September 9, 1923 by its founders, then changed its name as Republican People’s Party on September 10,1924. The first leader of the party was Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

Between the years of 1923 and 1950, there was single-party rule in Turkey since the short term trials of multi-party regime ended up with failure. CHP was the party in power in that period. The rule of CHP continued until the elections of 1950 which won by the Democratic Party. İsmet İnönü was the leader of CHP between the years of 1938 and 1972. İnönü is also the second president of the Turkish Republic

After the beginning of the 1960s with the rise of the left, CHP adapted its identity to the new political environment and shifted its political line close to social democracy. Especially, in the 1970s CHP chose a more leftist discourse directed to the workers, peasents and students who were attracted to the ascending revolutionary left. In this period, Bülent Ecevit gained the ledership of the party and became prime minister.

1980 coup d’etat closed Republican Peole’s Part as it closed all other parties. However on September 9,1992 CHP was refounded and united with Social Democrat People’s Party on February 18,1995. Deniz Baykal, current leader of the party, have become the leader after a short period.

CHP supports the relationship with the imperialism and liberal market economy. CHP stands for Turkey’s membership to the European Union and therefore opened an office in Brussels to improve relations with the EU organizations..
CHP is assumed by some circles as the represantative of the people who defend secularism and keen on independence of the country. However the party performs contradictory policies regarding two issues. Before the local elections of March 29, 2009 CHP accepted women in chador to party membership with a wide public publicity and promised Kur’an courses for every neighborhood. CHP advocates good relations with the USA and EU, supports continuity of the membership of Turkey to NATO and its relations with the World Bank and IMF.