Republican People's Party (Turkey)

Republican People's Party (Turkey)

The Republican People's Party (Turkish: Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, CHP) is a Kemalist and social-democratic political party in Turkey. It is the oldest political party of Turkey and is currently Main Opposition in the Grand National Assembly. The Republican People's Party describes itself as "a modern social-democratic party, which is faithful to founding principles and values of the Republic ". Also the party is cited as "the founding party of modern Turkey".

The party was established during the Congress of Sivas as a union of resistance groups against the invasion of Anatolia. The union represented Turkish people as a unified front during the Turkish War of Independence. On 9 September 1923, the "People's Party" officially declared itself as a political organization and on October 29, 1923, announced the establishment of the Turkish Republic. On 10 November 1924, the People's Party renamed itself to "Republican People's Party" (CHP) as Turkey was moving into a single-party period.

During the singleparty period, CHP became the major political organisation of a single-party state. However, CHP faced two opposition parties during this period. The first one was the Progressive Republican Party established in 1924 by some famous generals such as Kazım Karabekir and Ali Fuat Cebesoy of the Turkish War of Independence and the second one was the Liberal Republican Party founded by Ali Fethi Okyar in 1930, both of which, however, were banned within a few months of their establishment by the "single-party state". This experience was followed by the National Development Party founded by Nuri Demirağ, in 1945.

The current (or modern) structure of the party was established with the transition to multi-party period. After World War II, with the title Millî Şef ("National Chief"), Gen. İsmet İnönü, who was in lead of CHP, introduced democratic elections to the Turkish society. Consequent reforms enabling further democratization can also be interpreted as a response to the Soviet threat since the Soviet Union was about to get permission from the former allies to invade the Eastern part of Turkey and to limit Turkish sovereignty over her straits. Due to widespread dissatisfaction with the CHP, the party lost the first truly-democratic elections (the second general elections after 1946) of the republican era, held in 1950, and he left his seat to his old companion, Celal Bayar.

During the interim "multi-party periods" in between the military coups of 1960, 1971, and 1980, CHP is regarded as being social-democratic (member of the Socialist International), state nationalistic and secular/laicist. The party's logo consists of the Six Arrows, which represent the foundational principles of Kemalist Ideology: republicanism, nationalism, statism, populism, laïcité, and revolutionism.

CHP, along with all other political parties of the time, was closed down for a brief period by the military coup of 1980. An inheritor party which still participates in Turkish democratic life, was established in 1984, as the Democratic Left Party by the former leader of CHP, Bülent Ecevit. CHP was finally reestablished with its original name on 9 September 1992, with the participation of a majority of its previous members of the pre-1980 period.