An investigation was launched into the CHP accounts after a scandal broke out over an illegal money transfer from the party to television station Kanaltürk. The top court said the irregularities in the party's accounts in 1998, 2004, 2005 and 2006 totaled YTL 930,000 and criminal complaints would be filed against those responsible for keeping the party's records. Also complicating the CHP's situation are the prospects of a decision to be issued by the Socialist International (SI), which will today convene in Athens for its 23rd congress, on whether to issue a warning or even expel the CHP from the institution for severing ties with social democracy. The CHP has drawn the ire of many social democrats with its disregard of the nation's will on many occasions and its enthusiasm for military meddling in politics.Zaman's Mustafa Ünal terms the situation a twist of fate for the CHP -- which had raised the loudest fuss over the Welfare Party's (RP) "missing trillion" case concerning the disappearance of more than 1 trillion lira in Treasury grants to the RP -- to now be accused itself on the same charge. "The allegations are really serious; undoubtedly, it will have political consequences for the CHP. The RP case is obvious. The now-defunct RP paid a heavy cost in the lost trillion case. RP leader Necmettin Erbakan is under house arrest over this case, despite his old age. There are striking similarities between the CHP and RP cases," he says, adding that not only the CHP administrators but also CHP leader Deniz Baykal may face charges due to the account irregularities. Regarding the prospect of the CHP's expulsion from the SI, he finds SI concerns about the CHP's social democrat credentials valid. "The most striking characteristic of the left-wing ideology in the world is its quest for settlement of values such as democracy, freedom and human rights. Yet the situation is different in Turkey. The ideological, protectionist politics of the CHP, the largest party of the Turkish left wing, stand opposed to democracy and freedoms and deal harm not only to the left wing but also to Turkey. If only Baykal would go to Athens and listened to the SI criticism. Perhaps then both the CHP and Turkey would be saved from a calamity," contends Ünal.
Sabah's Ergun Babahan likens the CHP to a frog in one of La Fontaine's tales that exploded while trying to become a cow. "The CHP is like this frog at the point it has reached today. It is a Kemalist party but assumes itself to be a social democrat one," he says, stressing that the CHP does not settle its party policy on the labor-capital relation but on a secularism-Shariah relation, prioritizing Kemalist order instead of democracy. "In such a case, although the party's name is the Republican People's Party, it has to speak up for the bureaucracy not the public," claims Babahan. As a result of this, he says, the CHP always lacks a strong public support and never becomes a true alternative to the ruling party. "The SI will tell the frog, 'You are a frog and your efforts to become a cow will not change this fact.' The real identity of a party that defines itself a social democrat will be revealed along with the world it belongs to," says Babahan, also expressing his belief that the path to SI membership for a more deserving Turkish party may be paved in this way.
