In her article in the Bugün daily, Gülay Göktürk argues that it would be in vain to call on the CHP to change its policies in order to come to power. “People within the CHP are well aware of the direction of Turkish politics. As a matter of fact, they must be seeing it better than any of us. However, despite seeing clearly where Turkey is headed to, the CHP insists on its old ways of doing things. Because of that we should look at the reasons for its insistence, instead of just giving advice for nothing,” says Göktürk, explaining that now that the CHP has lost the military’s support after the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) broke the military’s influence over politics, the party can opt for one of two directions: Either the CHP will completely change its position in politics -- not only in the sense of policies but also its grass roots -- and aim to appeal to a wider segment of Turkish society, or it will stick with the same old policies and cater to the Kemalist base. Apparently, it chose the second option in order to satisfy the 25 percent of voters who support the tutelage regime. However, 25 percent of the electorate is not enough to bring the CHP back to power, which means the CHP’s main problem remains unsolved as long as the party continues on this course.
Star’s Mustafa Karaalioğlu is of the same opinion as Göktürk, saying that the CHP’s greatest strength so far has been its ability to eliminate the other parties -- the ones it does not agree with or simply dislikes -- based on the formulas “CHP+military=ruling party” and “CHP+military+judiciary=constant ruling party.” Karaalioğlu argues that even if the CHP does not come to power, the fact that it is the main opposition party has always been enough to make sure its ideology and policies have their influence felt. “We must never forget that the headscarf ban, using a lower coefficient system for imam-hatip high schools, the postmodern coup of Feb. 28 [1997], the closure of political parties and the increasing influence of the military on politics all happened when the CHP was not the ruling party, but we all know these events were made possible because of the influence of CHP policies. The CHP was able to wield this influence thanks to its powerful allies, but now that Turkey has had a breakthrough in reducing the tutelage system, the CHP has become like an orphan.
Yeni Şafak’s Yasin Aktay, in a similar manner, points to the imbalance and inconsistency of the CHP’s policies as the main problem of the party. Aktay thinks CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu has actually realized that he needs to expand the segment of society the CHP appeals to and has adopted new policies accordingly. “A recent move of Kılıçdaroğlu was to argue that the CHP was the party that founded the imam-hatip religious high schools. However, these moves do not work as the CHP’s past is full of examples of the opposite direction. How can reopening the same imam-hatip schools that were closed by the CHP in 1993 help the CHP score more points now?” says Aktay.
