October 28th, 2010 by Jason

Writing at openDemocracy, POMED’s Daphne McCurdy argues that the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) has failed to offer a real alternative to the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) policies, especially in regards to the recent referendum supported by the AKP. McCurdy compares the recent failures suffered by CHP to how the party was seen in the past, tracing the rise of the CHP under the leadership of Bulent Ecevit in the 1970s to the ignominious downfall of Deniz Baykal earlier this year. The major problem for CHP in the fight over the referendum was that it “focused on vilifying Erdogan and fear-mongering – tired tactics that missed the point.” Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who took over after Baykal, has begun the process of reform and has “pledged to present a ‘positive opposition’ that will contribute to better governance through compromise and consensus-building.” These are positive signs, McCurdy says, but “for the CHP to regain legitimacy it must figure out an effective way to translate this new rhetoric into deliverables.”

Posted in Political Parties, Reform, Turkey |