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MUCH TO DO FOR THE NEW CHP
Hurriyet
May 24 2010
Turkey
The main opposition Republican Peoples Party, or CHP, turned a major
page this weekend by effectively dumping its old ossified leadership
and electing a new and younger one headed by the unassuming yet
determined Kemal Kılıcdaroglu. Whether this represents a new page
for Turkey, however, is not clear at this stage.
It is nevertheless a fact that Prime Minister Erdogan and his ruling
Justice and Development Party, or AKP, are less comfortable today than
they were before the weekend. It is clear that the CHP in its present
formation has the potential to become a real "main opposition party"
that has its sights set on victory at the polls.
Many analysts believe the CHP under Deniz Baykal and his cronies had
no such aim. Theirs appeared to be more than an effort to remain in
Parliament, come what may, and not go beyond being the main opposition
in order to protect the entrenched political interests of a certain
group of politicians and elements in society that support them.
Whether this is true or not, it is clear that Baykal's CHP produced
one electoral defeat after another and never took the cue from this
in order to let others in the party have a chance to see if they
could produce better results.
It is no wonder then that Prime Minister Erdogan should have cynically
thanked Mr. Baykal on quite a few occasions in the past for stubbornly
refusing to vacate the leadership seat in the CHP. As long as Baykal
and his cronies remained, it was clear that the CHP posed no political
threat to the government.
The present CHP, however, has the potential to be a much more viable
opponent for Prime Minister Erdogan and the AKP. This means that
the government is going to have to work harder, especially on social
policies affecting working men and women, given that general elections
are not that far off.
None of this means, however, that the CHP can take anything, let
alone an electoral victory, for granted. It too has much to do, first
to dissipate the dark clouds that have been hovering over the party
under its previous leadership. Then it has to campaign tirelessly
across the country on social policies in order to capitalize on the
growing public anger at the AKP for neglecting wage earners, be they
white collar or blue.
The previous CHP could not utilize the opportunities created for it by
the government in this respect because it was anything but a social
democratic party, despite its pretensions to being one. Given this
odd situation, it was left to the government to introduce what were
generally palliative measures for the working class, thus appearing
to be more social democratically orientated than the CHP.
The new CHP is also going to have to work out very rapidly what its
position is on crucial issues such as Turkey's EU dimension, the Cyprus
issue, and the attempts at normalizing ties with Armenia. It must be
admitted that Mr. Kılıcdaroglu's speech at the CHP convention over
the weekend did not provide much excitement in this respect.
He produced some hackneyed clichés that showed he still has work
to do in this respect. One highly welcome change in the CHP in this
respect is that the retired ambassadors in the party administration,
who generally have an ultranationalist outlook on crucial foreign
policy issues, have gone now.
Some names have been bandied around in terms of who among retired
ambassadors will be taken on as advisors for the new CHP. These names,
which include people like Ugur Ziyal, a former ambassador to Damascus
and Rome, and Nabi Å~^ensoy, the former ambassador to Washington who
retired over a disagreement with foreign minister Davutoglu during
Prime Minister Erdogan's last visit to the U.S.
That names like this should be pronounced now bodes well for the CHP
given that these people are more in touch with the realities that
govern the world. This is why we prefer to give the benefit of the
doubt to Mr. Kılıcdaroglu on foreign policy issues even if we were
not impressed with his remarks on this subject.
We would like to believe he will, once he realizes the complexities
involved, will move toward a proactive position on key issues like the
EU and Cyprus, rather than repeat the reactive line of the previous
administration.
It is clear, however, that Kılıcdaroglu is going to score his real
points with the Turkish public over domestic issues, and especially
those that involve gross social injustices. It is also noteworthy
that he did not mention the notion of "secularism" once during
his address at the convention. He did not do this because he is
religiously orientated.
Kılıcdaroglu is after all an Alevi, which means he would be the last
one who would want to see Turkey's secular system tampered with. But
he has his finger on the pulse of the people better than Baykal did
and knows that while he may be a staunch secularist, there are issues
that have to be resolved in this country, not the least of which is
the headscarf issue.
The way Baykal's CHP approached issues such as these led many
conservatives to believe the CHP's brand of secularism was in fact
against Islam. Kılıcdaroglu now has the task of proving to the
public that being secular and religious at the same time are not
mutually exclusive and that secularism is there to protect people's
convictions, whether they be religious, agnostic or atheist.
The task facing Kılıcdaroglu is therefore daunting. Nevertheless,
he has injected fresh hope for social democracy in Turkey for those
who were deeply disappointed with the CHP under Baykal and had nowhere
to go. They will have a party to vote for now.
From: A. Papazian
Hurriyet
May 24 2010
Turkey
The main opposition Republican Peoples Party, or CHP, turned a major
page this weekend by effectively dumping its old ossified leadership
and electing a new and younger one headed by the unassuming yet
determined Kemal Kılıcdaroglu. Whether this represents a new page
for Turkey, however, is not clear at this stage.
It is nevertheless a fact that Prime Minister Erdogan and his ruling
Justice and Development Party, or AKP, are less comfortable today than
they were before the weekend. It is clear that the CHP in its present
formation has the potential to become a real "main opposition party"
that has its sights set on victory at the polls.
Many analysts believe the CHP under Deniz Baykal and his cronies had
no such aim. Theirs appeared to be more than an effort to remain in
Parliament, come what may, and not go beyond being the main opposition
in order to protect the entrenched political interests of a certain
group of politicians and elements in society that support them.
Whether this is true or not, it is clear that Baykal's CHP produced
one electoral defeat after another and never took the cue from this
in order to let others in the party have a chance to see if they
could produce better results.
It is no wonder then that Prime Minister Erdogan should have cynically
thanked Mr. Baykal on quite a few occasions in the past for stubbornly
refusing to vacate the leadership seat in the CHP. As long as Baykal
and his cronies remained, it was clear that the CHP posed no political
threat to the government.
The present CHP, however, has the potential to be a much more viable
opponent for Prime Minister Erdogan and the AKP. This means that
the government is going to have to work harder, especially on social
policies affecting working men and women, given that general elections
are not that far off.
None of this means, however, that the CHP can take anything, let
alone an electoral victory, for granted. It too has much to do, first
to dissipate the dark clouds that have been hovering over the party
under its previous leadership. Then it has to campaign tirelessly
across the country on social policies in order to capitalize on the
growing public anger at the AKP for neglecting wage earners, be they
white collar or blue.
The previous CHP could not utilize the opportunities created for it by
the government in this respect because it was anything but a social
democratic party, despite its pretensions to being one. Given this
odd situation, it was left to the government to introduce what were
generally palliative measures for the working class, thus appearing
to be more social democratically orientated than the CHP.
The new CHP is also going to have to work out very rapidly what its
position is on crucial issues such as Turkey's EU dimension, the Cyprus
issue, and the attempts at normalizing ties with Armenia. It must be
admitted that Mr. Kılıcdaroglu's speech at the CHP convention over
the weekend did not provide much excitement in this respect.
He produced some hackneyed clichés that showed he still has work
to do in this respect. One highly welcome change in the CHP in this
respect is that the retired ambassadors in the party administration,
who generally have an ultranationalist outlook on crucial foreign
policy issues, have gone now.
Some names have been bandied around in terms of who among retired
ambassadors will be taken on as advisors for the new CHP. These names,
which include people like Ugur Ziyal, a former ambassador to Damascus
and Rome, and Nabi Å~^ensoy, the former ambassador to Washington who
retired over a disagreement with foreign minister Davutoglu during
Prime Minister Erdogan's last visit to the U.S.
That names like this should be pronounced now bodes well for the CHP
given that these people are more in touch with the realities that
govern the world. This is why we prefer to give the benefit of the
doubt to Mr. Kılıcdaroglu on foreign policy issues even if we were
not impressed with his remarks on this subject.
We would like to believe he will, once he realizes the complexities
involved, will move toward a proactive position on key issues like the
EU and Cyprus, rather than repeat the reactive line of the previous
administration.
It is clear, however, that Kılıcdaroglu is going to score his real
points with the Turkish public over domestic issues, and especially
those that involve gross social injustices. It is also noteworthy
that he did not mention the notion of "secularism" once during
his address at the convention. He did not do this because he is
religiously orientated.
Kılıcdaroglu is after all an Alevi, which means he would be the last
one who would want to see Turkey's secular system tampered with. But
he has his finger on the pulse of the people better than Baykal did
and knows that while he may be a staunch secularist, there are issues
that have to be resolved in this country, not the least of which is
the headscarf issue.
The way Baykal's CHP approached issues such as these led many
conservatives to believe the CHP's brand of secularism was in fact
against Islam. Kılıcdaroglu now has the task of proving to the
public that being secular and religious at the same time are not
mutually exclusive and that secularism is there to protect people's
convictions, whether they be religious, agnostic or atheist.
The task facing Kılıcdaroglu is therefore daunting. Nevertheless,
he has injected fresh hope for social democracy in Turkey for those
who were deeply disappointed with the CHP under Baykal and had nowhere
to go. They will have a party to vote for now.
From: A. Papazian