Republican People's Party, Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, CHP is a centre-left Kemalist political party in Turkey. It is the oldest political party of Turkey and is currently Main Opposition in the Grand National Assembly. The Republican People's Party describes itself as "a modern social-democratic party, which is faithful to founding principles and values of the Republic of Turkey". Also the party is cited as "the founding party of modern Turkey".
The party was established during the Congress of Sivas as a union of resistance groups against the invasion of Anatolia. The union represented Turkish people as a unified front during the Turkish War of Independence. On September 9, 1923, "People's Party" officially declared itself as a political organization and on October 29, 1923, announced the establishment of the Turkish Republic. On November 10, 1924, the People's Party renamed itself to "Republican People's Party" (CHP) as Turkey was moving into a single-party period.
During the singleparty period, CHP became the major political organization of single-party state. However, CHP faced two opposition parties during this period. The first one was the Progressive Republican Party established in 1924 by some famous generals such as Kazım Karabekir and Ali Fuat Cebesoy of the Turkish War of Independence and the second one was the Liberal Republican Party founded by Ali Fethi Okyar in 1930, both of which, however, were banned within a few months of their establishment by the "single-party state". This experience was followed by the National Development Party founded by Nuri Demirağ, in 1945.
The current (or modern) structure of the party was established with the transition to multi-party period. After World War II, with the title Millî Şef ("National Chief"), Gen. İsmet İnönü, who was in lead of CHP, has introduced democratic elections to the Turkish society. Consequent reforms enabling further democratization can also be interpreted as a response to the Soviet threat since the Soviet Union was about to get permission from the former allies to invade the Eastern part of Turkey and to limit Turkish sovereignty over her straits. Due to widespread dissatisfaction with the CHP, the party lost the first truly-democratic elections (the second general elections after 1946) of the republican era, held in 1950, and he left his seat[citation needed] to his old companion, Celal Bayar.
During the interim "multi-party periods" in between the military coups of 1960, 1971, and 1980, CHP is regarded as being social-democratic (member of the Socialist International), state nationalistic and secular/laicist. The party's logo consists of the Six Arrows, which represent the foundational principles of Kemalist Ideology: republicanism, nationalism, statism, populism, laïcité, and revolutionism.
CHP, along with all other political parties of the time, was closed down for a brief period by the military coup of 1980. An inheritor party which still participates in Turkish democratic life, was established in 1984, as Democratic Left Party by the former leader of CHP, Bülent Ecevit. CHP was finally reestablished with its original name on September 9, 1992, with the participation of a majority of its previous members of the pre-1980 period.
Single-party period
During the War of Independence, 1919–1922, the parliament in Ankara was composed by different types of deputies. To have a harmony among his followers, Mustafa Kemal and his colleagues formed Müdafaa-ı Hukuk grubu (the group of Defence of the Law). The opposition to Mustafa Kemal or to the commissars elected by the parliament has united under the name of second group of Defence of the Law, simply second group (so the Mustafa Kemal followers were later called as first group). Although second group has always been minority, it could create active opposition within the parliament. In January 1923, Mustafa Kemal Pasha announced that first group would be transformed to a Party named Halk Fırkası (People's Party). In May 1923, the parliament called a bill for new elections, most probably, because Mustafa Kemal and his colleagues wanted to guarantee the peace treaty's, held in Lausanne, approval by more unanimous parliament. The People's Party was officially founded only after the 1923 elections. The 1923 elections were definitely the victory of forthcoming Party, because of the its leaders reputation after the military victory of the War of Independence and it was the liquidation of second group. Thanks to this unanimity of this second parliament, the republic was proclaimed, the Treaty of Lausanne was accepted and Caliphate was abolished.
However, in 1924, after the short-period of a single-party rule, many of Mustafa Kemal's ex-colleagues, for many reasons (many of them was offended because they were losing power, or their opposition to the short-period of a single-party rule's revolutionary activities, etc...) Rauf Orbay, Kâzım Karabekir, Ali Fuat Cebesoy and many others founded an opposition party called Terakkiperver Cumhuriyet Fırkası (Progressive Republicans Party). After the foundation of an opposition party, People's Party changed his name to "Republican People's Party". The life of Progressive Republicans Party was short. In 1925 Sheikh Said rebellion was sparked in the east of Turkey. The party was closing down because of the martial law, Takrir-i Sukun and all the prominent members were sent before the Independence Courts, but none of them was found guilty and all of them were released. Even this event was enough to dismiss the prominent members of opposition party. From that period 1925 till 1946 was the a single-party rule, with a short break of Serbest Fırka (Liberal Party) which was actually found by Atatürk, himself and its leader was one of his closest friends Ali Fethi Okyar. Unfortunately, this party was closed down by its founders, shortly after the İzmir meeting which was a huge demonstration against Republican People's Party. In the period of 1925-1930, Republican People's Party introduced the reforms transforming Turkey to a modern State. In the period of 1930-1939, the Party was transformed itself and tried to widespread his ideology (for instance 6 arrows were accepted after 1930) after the liberal Party experience which showed its leaders how fragile was their rule over the people.
Kılıçdaroğlu period, 2010–present
On May 22, 2010, the party convention of the Republican People's Party elected Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu to be the new party leader. Kılıçdaroğlu set about immediately to reform the party and many critics of the day commented positively how the Kılıçdaroğlu period would see the People's Republican Party move more to the left as in the time of Bülent Ecevit, in contrast to the Baykal period which had moved CHP more closer to centre politics to such an extent that left-wing intellectuals had started to claim how the CHP was becoming a right-wing party. Kılıçdaroğlu has seen an immense rise in popularity and support throughout the countries and for the first time in twenty years, the party has become directly active in the eastern parts of the Republic. In late 2010, the party held a Great Election where the Party Leader's cabinet was reformed. It marked the end of the 'Baykal - Onder Sav' era completely where all opposition to the changing policy of the CHP was swiftly removed. Kilicdaroglu emerged successful; winning the total support of his party and strengthening his leadership over the party.
Current position
The Republican People's Party is currently a centre-leftist political party with traditional ties to middle and upper-middle classes such as white-collar workers, retired generals, government bureaucrats, academicians, college students, left-leaning intellectuals and labor unions such as DİSK, and well-to-do entrepreneurs. Nevertheless, the loose relationship between CHP and some labor unions, business chambers and most non-governmental organizations alienated significant support from CHP. The distance between party administration and many leftist grassroots, especially left oriented Kurdish voters, contributes the shift of CHP from political left to an authoritarian base.
Despite heavy criticism from liberal and libertarian socialist interest groups, CHP still holds a significant position in the Socialist International as well as being an associate member of the Party of European Socialists. CHP urged the Socialist International to accept Republican Turkish Party of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus as an observer member.
At the 2007 general election CHP ran in alliance with Democratic Left Party. CHP suffered a heavy defeat, getting 7,300,234 votes (20.85% of the total). CHP, YTP, and DSP combined got 21.77% of the votes back in 2002. The party could become first only in three provinces in Thrace (Edirne, Tekirdağ, Kırklareli) and two provinces on the Aegean coast (İzmir, Muğla). With these results, 112 candidates (13 of these MPs are DSP affiliates) were elected to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey from the CHP electoral sheet compared to 178 in 2002.
CHP increased its vote share from 20.9% to 23.1% in the 2009 municipal elections. The party gained considerable ground by winning Antalya, Giresun, Zonguldak, Sinop, Tekirdag, Aydin despite losing Trabzon municipality. In 20 provinces of Turkey, the party received less than 3% of the votes.
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