“Clean Politics: The state is a system of law. And law finds its source in ethics. It’s the CHP’s chief target to let ethics and virtue prevail at every phase and establish an honest administration and an open society. … Tolerance and Peace: The CHP is the party of conciliation and solidarity, tolerance and peace, and equality and freedom. The Republican People’s Party’s goal is to form a society that has managed to be in agreement within itself and with democracy, and a society that is just and peaceful. Our party’s program is that of social peace. This program is aimed at integrating Turkey’s historical continuity into its longing for change, its tradition into the search for renewing itself and its past into its future, and thus reflects them as a whole.
The CHP’s principle of ‘Republicanism’ also includes a deep conciliation in terms of democracy. The understanding at the core of the republic is an understanding of the equality and integrity of all the people who form this togetherness. The CHP adopts the nation’s sovereignty and independence as the fundamental rule of republicanism and defends it. This understanding is the chief grounds for a real peace.
The tenet of ‘a democratic solution for ethnic sensitivities’ in the CHP’s program is a window opening to the cultural pluralism and domestic peace in our country.
Human Rights: The essential condition to free the individual is to save it from being under guardianship. The individual should be rescued from the state’s guardianship; this guardianship of the state limits citizens’ democratic rights and human rights. People should be able to speak out, write and gather around every sort of thought as a prerequisite of human rights. Everyone should be able to exercise their right to live and protect and develop their physical as well as spiritual being. Human rights, which are the essence of liberties, should be protected and claimed at every level, and the violation of these rights should be eradicated at once.
The Republican People’s Party perceives the individual’s freedom and security as something beyond an abstract right; it considers the individual’s right to education, to benefit from health services and to work to be among the most fundamental human rights. The principle that our people, regardless of their ethnic descent or their faith, are equal constitutional citizens with all their rights should be implemented to the letter. Gender-based discrimination should be eradicated, and the equality between men and women should be accepted as a fundamental human right.
Humanity first: The individual is in the focus of the Republican People’s Party’s modern understanding of social democracy. The CHP’s stanchions are the individual, society and people with all their “rights, laws, liberties, labor, identity and culture. …” The CHP sees democracy as an indispensable way of life for our country and people. Achieving democracy with all its qualities and beauties and preventing it from being interrupted are two indispensable lines in our understanding of “humanity first.” During the CHP’s term in power, the state will be restructured according to the principle of “humanity first.”
Secularism: Secularism separates state affairs from religious affairs. … The chief quality of secularism is that it contributes to the society’s integrity and that it prevents society from being divided into factions over religious discrepancies. It institutionalizes peace, mutual understanding, and tolerance. A secular state doesn’t take sides with those differentiating by benefiting from their liberties of religion-faith-thought; it is the organizer of the common feeling of security. … The CHP doesn’t let the state intervene in religious beliefs. All the faiths are equal before the state. It also never let religious beliefs get mixed up with state affairs. It considers freedom of religion and worship to be the individual’s sacred and untouchable right. It is against religion becoming an instrument of pressure, but it also opposes religion and religious faiths’ being pressurized.
Democracy: (=) CHP. (I laughed my head off at this part! I’m sure it will entertain you also. B.K.)
Now, stop here for a moment and think about all the developments centered on the CHP’s recent clandestine efforts aimed at polarizing society and decide to what extent the things written here fit in with the CHP and its leader Baykal’s attitudes and statements. And answer this question as honestly as possible: “Do you trust that the CHP -- which has so far not complied or hasn’t been able to comply with even its own manifesto while in the opposition -- will remain loyal to this manifesto in the event it arrives in power?” Even the honest answer that will seep out from the depths of your conscience will be an adequate contribution to the good of our country and people.
