In the face of a noisy protest uncommon at such gatherings, people in the room looked at her with astonishment, while I continued to speak. After the panel had concluded, I learned that the screams had come from the representative of the CHP in Brussels. To those who expressed their regret over what had happened, I responded by saying that such inflammatory styles had become, unfortunately, common among the CHP cadre.Recently, it was reported that the same CHP representative in Brussels had written a letter to Adrian Severin, the vice president of the Socialist Group in the European Parliament, calling the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) in Turkey “authoritarian right-wing and non-European” and harshly criticized Hannes Swoboda, the other vice president, for having stated: “The constitutional amendments proposed by the Turkish government are in harmony with social democratic values. We call on the new CHP leader to support the amendments.” I learned later from personal contacts that this letter had created much disappointment among members of the Group, who had raised their hopes about the CHP with the election of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu as its new leader.
Commenting on the letter sent to Severin, Kılıçdaroğlu was reported to have said: “It is a mistake to criticize Swoboda directly. We should perhaps have reached out those circles and better explained our position.” His deputy, Hakkı Süha Okay, however, was very harsh in his comments about the Socialists. He said, “Instead of acting as the mouthpiece of the Justice and Development Party [AKP], they should have first looked at the proposed constitutional amendments and judged them by European standards, before expressing their views.” I do not know what made Okay conclude that the political developments in Turkey are not closely monitored in Brussels, but I could certainly assure him that representatives for both the European Union and the Council of Europe concur, with some reservations, that the constitutional amendments package in Turkey is in conformity with European standards.
Swoboda’s response to the letter from the Brussels representative of the CHP was: “The content and wording of the letter is unacceptable. We face a very strange situation, because the letter that criticized me was not addressed to me. According to some people the letter may have been sent without Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu being informed, and even that it was written by the staff of the old guard. In any case, this letter does not bode well for Kılıçdaroğlu.”
Some people in Turkey worry that European socialists and social democrats may have misperceptions concerning the CHP, taking it for a genuine “social democratic” party. I, as someone in contact with these groups, have often assured them that there is not the slightest reason for such concern, telling them that European socialists’ and social democrats’ only hope nowadays is that the CHP will gradually move away from its current “authoritarian right-wing and non-European” identity.
Turning to Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu, it is clear that if he intends to give the CHP a new identity, he will need to exert a lot of effort. In this context, it is good to hear that he is planning to send a letter to Swoboda to explain his views on the constitutional amendments, and to pay a visit to Brussels and other major European capitals in the near future. It was, however, very unfortunate that Kılıçdaroğlu claimed recently on television that Mr. Swoboda “did not make those comments on his own, but some others made him say them.” (NTV, July 26). This is surely a very disrespectful thing to say to a member of the European Parliament, who lends great support to Turkey’s accession to the EU.
It is regrettable that more and more things have started to not “bode well” for the new leader of the CHP. He has recently managed to stupefy the country by putting forward the wildest conspiracy theory ever by claiming that the memorandum placed on the website of the Turkish General Staff on April 27, 2007, (and supported strongly by many of the CHP representatives including the former party leader, Deniz Baykal) warning the AKP not to elect Abdullah Gül as president, was actually a joint plot by the military and the AKP to secure the re-election of the AKP government in the early elections that took place in July of that year.
While Mr. Kılıçdaroğlu is taking some initiatives to distance his party from its image as a supporter of the political involvement of the military, he has recently proposed an amendment to the military’s Internal Service Code which, if adopted, may provide further legal justification for the military’s intervention in politics. While the AKP government has objected to the promotion of generals charged with involvement in coup plots, Kılıçdaroğlu unashamedly proclaims that the government should not go against the wishes of the military in promotions and appointments. Kılıçdaroğlu, unfortunately, continues to disappoint.
NOTE: This weekly column will be on hiatus for the next two weeks.
