Republican People's Party

The Republican People's Party has its origins in the resistance organizations, known as Defence of Rights Associations, created in the immediate aftermath of World War I in the Turkish War of Independence. In the Sivas Congress, Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk) and his colleagues united the Defence of Rights Associations into the Association for the Defence of National Rights of Anatolia and Rumelia (Anadolu ve Rumeli Müdâfaa-i Hukuk Cemiyeti) (ADNRAR), and called for elections in the Ottoman Empire to elect representatives associated with the organization. ADNRAR members proclaimed the Grand National Assembly as a counter government from the Ottoman government in Istanbul. Grand National Assembly forces militarily defeated Greece, France, and Armenia, overthrew the Ottoman government, and abolished the monarchy. After the 1923 election, ADNRAR was transformed into a political party called the People's Party (Halk Fırkası). Because of the unanimity of the new parliament, the republic was proclaimed, the Treaty of Lausanne was ratified, and the Caliphate was abolished the next year.[8]

The CHP (Then known with the acronym "CHF") sponsored many nation building projects in the 1930s, such as People's Courses.

In 1924, opposition to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk resulted in the foundation of the Progressive Republican Party (TCF). Reacting to the foundation of the TCF, his People's Party changed its name to the Republican People's Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Fırkası, soon Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi) (CHP). The life of the TCF was short. The TCF faced allegations of involvement in the Sheikh Said rebellion and for conspiring with members of the Committee of Union and Progress to assassinate Atatürk in the İzmir Affair. Because of this, it was banned by the government, and its members were tried. From 1925 until 1946, Turkey was under one-party rule, with one interruption; another brief experiment of opposition politics through the formation of the Liberal Republican Party.

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk and his Prime Minister İsmet İnönü, 1936. İnönü would succeed him as president and CHP chairman after his death.

In the period of 1924–1946, the CHP introduced sweeping social, cultural, educational, economic, and legal reforms that transformed Turkey into a Western modeled state. Such reforms included strict secularism (laïcité) and Turkish nationalism, women's suffrage, converting written Turkish from Arabic script into Latin script, adoption of Swiss and Italian legal and penal codes, and the acceleration of industrialization, to name a few. In the period of 1930–1939, Atatürk's CHP clarified its ideology by adopting the 'Six Arrows': republicanism, reformism, laïcité, populism, nationalism, and statism, as well as borrowing tenets from Communism and Fascism.[9] It was during the one-party period that Inspectorates-General, Independence Tribunals, and military force were employed by Atatürk to suppress opposition to his reforms, at the expense of religious conservatives and Kurds. In the parties third convention, the party clarified their approach towards the religious minorities of the Christians and the Jews, accepting them as real Turks as long as they adhere to the national ideal and use the Turkish language.[10]

On 12 November 1938, the day after Atatürk's death, his ally İsmet İnönü was elected the second president[11] and assumed leadership of the Republican People's Party. İnönü's presidency saw the annexation of the Hatay State and the establishment of Village Institutes. İnönü adopted a policy of neutrality despite attempts by the Allies and Axis powers to bring Turkey into World War II. The party was associated with anti-communism.[12][13][14] In the aftermath of World War II, İnönü called for a multi-party general election in 1946 – the first multi-party election in the country's history. The Motion with Four Signatures resulted in the resignation of some CHP members who then founded the Democrat Party (DP), which challenged the party in the election. The result was a victory for the CHP, which won 395 of the 465 seats, amid criticism that the election did not live up to democratic standards. However, four years later, a more free and fair general election was held in 1950 that led to the CHP losing power to the DP. İnönü presided over a peaceful transition of power. The 1950 election marked the end of the CHP's last majority government. The party has not been able to regain a parliamentary majority in any subsequent election since.[15]

Due to the winner-take-all system in place during the 1950s, the DP achieved landslide victories in elections that were reasonably close, meaning the CHP was in opposition for 10 years. In the mean time, the party began a long transformation into a social democratic force. In its ninth congress in 1951, the youth branch and the women's branch were founded. In 1953, the establishment of trade unions and vocational chambers was proposed, and the right to strike for workers was added to the party program. The Democrat Party was abolished after the 1960 military coup, and Prime Minister Adnan Menderes, Foreign Minister Fatin Rüştü Zorlu, and Finance Minister Hasan Polatkan were hanged in the İmralı island prison. Right-wing parties which trace their roots to the DP have since continuously attacked the CHP for their perceived involvement in the hanging of Adnan Menderes.[16]

Bülent Ecevit with Nicolae Ceaușescu, 1978.

With electoral law reform implementing proportional representation, the CHP emerged as the first-placed party at the general election of 1961, and formed a grand coalition with the Justice Party, a successor-party to the Democrat Party. This was the first coalition government in Turkey, which endured for seven-months. İnönü was able to form two more governments with other parties until the 1965 election. His labor minister Bülent Ecevit was instrumental in giving Turkish workers the right to strike and collective bargaining. As leader of the Democratic Left movement in the CHP, Ecevit contributed to the party adopting the Left of Centre (Ortanın solu) programme for that election, which they lost.[17] İnönü remained as opposition leader and the leader of the CHP until 8 May 1972, when he was overthrown as party leader by Ecevit in a party congress, due to his endorsement of the military intervention of 1971.

Ecevit adopted a distinct left wing role in politics and, although remaining staunchly nationalist, attempted to implement democratic socialism into the ideology of CHP. Support for the party increased when he became prime minister in 1974 and invaded Cyprus. The CHP achieved its best ever result in a free and fair multi-party election under Ecevit, when in 1977, the party received 41% of the vote. The 1970s featured constant changes in government between the CHP and the Justice Party, as well as intense political violence. This ended in a military coup in 1980, resulting in the banning of every political party and major politicians being jailed and banned from politics.[18]

Both the party name "Republican People's Party" and the abbreviation "CHP" were banned until 1987. Until 1999, Turkey was ruled by the centre-right Motherland Party (ANAP) and the True Path Party (DYP), unofficial successors of the Democrat Party and the Justice Party, as well as, briefly, by the Islamist Welfare Party. CHP supporters also established successor parties. By 1985, Erdal İnönü, İsmet İnönü's son, consolidated two successor parties to form the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP), while the Democratic Left Party (Turkish: Demokratik Sol Parti, DSP) was formed by Rahşan Ecevit, Bülent Ecevit's wife (Bülent Ecevit took over the DSP in 1987). After the ban on pre-1980 politicians was lifted in 1987, Deniz Baykal refounded the CHP in 1992, and the SHP merged with the party in 1995. However, Ecevit's DSP remained separate, and to this day has not merged with the CHP.[19] Observers noted that the two parties held similar ideologies and split the Kemalist vote in the nineties. From 1991 to 1996, the SHP and then the CHP were in coalition governments with the DYP. Baykal supported Mesut Yılmaz's coalition government after the collapse of the Welfare-DYP coalition following the 28 February "post-modern coup." However, due to the Türkbank scandal, the CHP withdrew its support and helped depose the government with a no confidence vote. Ecevit's DSP formed an interim-government, during which the PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan was captured in Kenya. As such, in the election of 1999, the DSP benefited massively in the polls at the expense of CHP, and the party failed to exceed the 10% threshold (8.7% vote), not winning any seats.

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu during the 2017 March for Justice

In the 2002 general election, the CHP came back with 20% of the vote but 32% of the seats in parliament, as only it and the new AKP (Justice and Development Party) received above the 10% threshold to enter parliament. With DSP's collapse, CHP became Turkey's main Kemalist and center-left party. It also became the second largest party and the main opposition party, a position it has retained since. Since the dramatic 2002 election, the CHP has been racked by internal power struggles, and has been outclassed by the AKP governments of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Many on the left were critical of the leadership of CHP, especially Baykal, who they complained was stifling the party of young blood by turning away the young who turn either to apathy or even vote for the AKP. This perception wasn't helped by Baykal's endorsement of undemocratic attempts by the army and judiciary to shut down the AKP. Between 2002 and 2010, Turkey held three general elections and two local elections, all of which the CHP received between 18-23% of the vote. In a controversial 2003 vote in parliament the CHP and half of the AKP voted against joining the US-lead coalition invasion of Iraq.[20]

On 10 May 2010, Deniz Baykal announced his resignation as leader of the Republican People's Party after a clandestinely made video tape of him sitting on a bed with a woman was leaked to the media. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu was elected to be the new party leader,[21] however even with Kılıçdaroğlu at the helm, after four general elections the CHP has still not won an election, receiving between only 22 and 26% of the vote in parliamentary elections. CHP and MHP's joint candidate for the 2014 presidential election Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu lost to Erdoğan with only 38% of the vote. Kılıçdaroğlu supported the government in the 2016 coup d'etat attempt, incursions into Syria, and assisted the purges. This went so far as supporting the lifting of parliamentary immunities and subsequent jailings of MPs from the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party, including Selahattin Demirtaş.[22] The party lead the "no" campaign for the 2017 constitutional referendum, which failed.

Mayor of Ankara Yavaş, Leader of CHP Kılıçdaroğlu and Mayor of Istanbul İmamoğlu.

In the 2018 general election the CHP, Good Party, Felicity, and Democrat Party established the Nation Alliance to challenge the AKP and MHP's People's Alliance.[23][24] Though CHP's vote was reduced to 22%, strategic voting for the other parties yielded the alliance 33% of the vote. Their candidate for president: Muharrem İnce, received only 30% of the vote. The Nation Alliance was re-established for the 2019 local elections, which saw great gains for the CHP, capturing nearly 30% of the electorate and the municipal mayoralties of İstanbul and Ankara. Some consider their new respective mayors Ekrem İmamoğlu and Mansur Yavaş possible candidates for the upcoming 2023 presidential election. Kılıçdaroğlu and his counterpart in the Good Party Meral Akşener continue a close cooperation as leaders of opposition parties, and the two parties are gaining in the polls, especially amongst the youth,[25][26][27][28][29] due to the ongoing economic crisis and government mismanagement of the COVID-19 pandemic.[30]

The Republican People's Party is a centre-left[31] political party that espouses social democracy[32][33] and Kemalism.[34] The CHP describes itself as a ''modern social-democratic party, which is faithful to the founding principles and values of the Republic of Turkey".[35][36]

The distance between the party administration and many leftist grassroots, especially left-oriented Kurdish voters, contributed to the party's shift away from the political left.[37] Leftists criticize the party's continuous opposition to the removal of Article 301 of the Turkish penal code, which caused people to be prosecuted for "insulting Turkishness" including Elif Şafak and Nobel Prize winner author Orhan Pamuk, its conviction of Turkish-Armenian journalist Hrant Dink, its attitude towards minorities in Turkey, as well as its Cyprus policy.

Numerous politicians from the party have espoused support for LGBT rights,[38][39][40] and the feminist movement in Turkey.

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has repeatedly called for Selahattin Demirtaş and Osman Kavala to be released to jail.[41]

The party holds a significant position in the Socialist International,[42] Progressive Alliance[43] and is an associate member of the Party of European Socialists. In 2014 the CHP urged the Socialist International to accept the Republican Turkish Party of Northern Cyprus as a full member.[44]

The CHP generally votes with the government in foreign policy, and supports Turkey's interventions in Syria, Libya, and, up until 2021, Iraq.[45]

The party is pro-European and supports Turkish membership to the European Union.[46]