CHP in leadership limbo as national congress draws near

    What led to Baykal’s resignation was a video clip posted online last week that allegedly shows him intimately involved with CHP Ankara deputy Nesrin Baytok. The scandalous video sparked unease within the main opposition party, with Baykal’s close supporters reportedly pressuring him to quit. Baykal heeded those calls and announced on Monday that he had decided to step down from his position. Both Baykal and Baytok are married. The party is slated to hold a national congress on May 22, but no candidates have been announced for the position, which, according to many, is a result of strong hints included in the outgoing leader’s farewell speech that he will seek any opportunity to be re-elected as the party’s head.

    A number of scenarios and possibilities came to the agenda last week following Baykal’s resignation on Monday. Although the outgoing CHP leader said his decision to quit was certain, he signaled a return later many times, which was also supported by the pro-Baykal group within the CHP.

“Of course I have a responsibility to my party. I wouldn’t want it to fall into chaos. That is why I am waiting for someone to step in and become a candidate. I don’t want to prevent or discourage anybody. I don’t want to, at least for now, destroy the chances of a new candidate coming up. But I can’t really let them fall into chaos,” he said in one of his post-resignation statements.

Either sooner or later, Baykal likely to make comeback

According to Radikal daily columnist Hasan Celal Güzel, the CHP, which has been under the “Baykal dictatorship” for almost 10 years, lacked a situation for discussion for years. “Turkey’s social democrats and the CHP are after a long time in the spotlight following this upsetting [video] case,” he told Sunday’s Zaman. Güzel says Baykal is likely to return to the CHP, but the date of his return is unclear. “There are two possibilities. One is that he will return to the party before the upcoming congress and will be elected as the party leader once again. The other, which is more likely for me, is that he will not run as a candidate in the upcoming congress but nominate a low-profile party member to lead the party for a short while. This will not be a high-profile CHP member like Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu or Gürsel Tekin. He will temporarily head the party and do what Baykal tells him. Later, Baykal will make a comeback before next year’s parliamentary elections with an extraordinary party congress after the waters are settled,” he says.

The pro-Baykal group within the CHP also believes that it would be better for Baykal to stay out of the spotlight for now and let someone else steer the party for a year or so and then have Baykal return, believing this would be an advantage for the party in next year’s elections.

Currently there are a few CHP members whose names are being mentioned as potential party leaders. Among them is Kılıçdaroğlu, who has long been promoted by a certain media group as a suitable candidate to head the CHP. Tekin, the CHP İstanbul provincial chairman, is also regarded by many as one of the strongest contenders for party leadership. Others have also indicated their willingness to take the helm of the CHP. Among these are Samsun deputy Haluk Koç, İstanbul deputy Ali Topuz, Tekirdağ deputy Faik Öztrak and writer, musician and film director Zülfü Livaneli.

Güzel says Cevdet Selvi, who currently leads the party as the deputy chairman, can also replace Baykal for a short while. “I don’t think Baykal worries about giving his seat to a person who will lead the party better than him. This is what I predict. But there is also the possibility that he will actually leave the party leadership. I was not expecting him to announce his resignation, either,” he notes.

Fikri Sağlar, a former minister who also served as a CHP deputy before being expelled by the party in a controversial decision in 2001, also says all signs point to Baykal’s comeback. “The fact that no name emerged last week to lead the party shows that there are efforts within the party to make him return,” he says.

Following his resignation, the former leader confined himself to his house, but he is still making attempts to control the process ahead. Baykal is trying not to fall behind developments and continues to issue statements to journalists and have meetings with his party’s senior administrators.

Sağlar is critical about Baykal’s return. “His return is for the benefit of neither the CHP nor the country. The CHP could make use of the opportunity to renew itself,” Sağlar told Sunday’s Zaman.

CHP İstanbul deputy Mehmet Sevigen, however, believes that his party will overcome the current chaos successfully. Noting that newly founded leftist political parties have proven unsuccessful, he argues that the CHP is still the biggest party of the left. “We will overcome this in a short time. The CHP, which is the representative of the Turkish left, is powerful enough to get through this process,” he said in phone interview with Sunday’s Zaman.

Reluctant to comment on the recent nervousness within the CHP caused by the emergence of Baykal’s video scandal, former CHP leader Hikmet Çetin told Sunday’s Zaman that it is not possible to make a comment on the future of the CHP before the congress, underlining that the Turkish left is passing through a serious phase.

*Ali Aslan Kılıç from Ankara contributed to this report.