Republican People’s Party (CHP) Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu explains why his party has so far refused to be part of the ongoing peace effort. DHA photo Turkey’s main opposition head, Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has criticized government’s regional policies, and referred to their efforts making the analogy “a surrogate mother for new formations in the Middle East". While explaining his p ...

Haluk Koç, the deputy chairman of the Republican People's Party (CHP), has made public the text of the protocol allegedly signed by members of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and representatives of the Turkish Government at the negotiations in Oslo. England, in the capacity of an arbitrator country, signed the text in the name of the two parties, Koç said. According to the text the two sides agreed upon, ...

Huseyin Aygun, a parliamentarian for the country's main opposition group, the Republican People's Party (CHP), gestures at his office in Ankara December 5, 2011. Republican People’s Party (CHP) Tunceli deputy Hüseyin Aygün was released by his captors yesterday, 48 hours after he was kidnapped by militants. Tunceli Gov. Mustafa Taşkesen confirmed Aygün’s release, and said the lawmaker was at a military post ...

Suspected members of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) have kidnapped a deputy from the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) today. CHP Tunceli deputy Hüseyin Aygün was returning from a visit to Ovacık district of the southeastern province of Tunceli when PKK militants stopped his vehicle at around 7 p.m., broadcaster CNN Türk reported. One journalist and one aide who were traveling wit ...

A country ‘begging’ for 100 billion euros in order not to collapse cannot be model for Turkey, PM Erdoğan says in an open reference to Greece. Opposition leader Kılıçdaroğlu is doubtful of the official growth figures The leaders of Turkey’s ruling and main opposition parties engaged in a battle of words yesterday at the Turkish Exporters Assembly’s (TİM) general meeting yesterday, with Prime Minister Recep ...

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said Turkey can start discussing a possible switch to a presidential system while preparing its new constitution. “As you know we are now in the process of writing a new constitution. This can be discussed during this process. It may be discussed whether Turkey can adopt a presidential system or a semi-presidential system. If Parliament says in the end that the countr ...

It is amazing to see how extraordinary skills PM Erdoğan is equipped with when it has to do with making up  a new agenda and shifting the attention of the public to another direction, he would like to. This has often helped the ruling party get through major challenges by changing the point of focus, and thus cooling of the undesired agenda. In other words we could say the administration does not always tel ...

Turkey’s restive main opposition was hit by fresh turmoil yesterday as the right-hand man of party leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu submitted his resignation, disgruntled with long-running disagreements over the party’s vision and a row over how to organize its influential Istanbul branch. Kılıçdaroğlu sought to dissuade Tekin from quitting, but the latter was determined to go, party sources said. Tekin was not pr ...

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy chair Faruk Loğoğlu has slammed Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu for saying Turkey has a pioneering role in the new Middle East, calling this view a “dangerous fantasy.” “I am only smiling at this. I interpret this as a fantasy. I wouldn’t have a word to say if it was a safe fantasy, but it is a dangerous fantasy. The Turkish foreign minister, w ...

KESK members in Şanlıurfa and some other spots in Turkey were prevented from reaching Ankara. In anticipation of a rally organized by the Confederation of Public Sector Trade Unions (KESK) today in protest of the new education reform bill, police stopped some buses outside Ankara this morning, but they were later allowed to enter the city, daily Hürriyet reported. The police first tried to prevent demonstra ...

The CHP takes its opposition to education reform to the streets, drawing 20,000 to an Ankara square in a bid to halt a government bill Tens of thousands of people flocked to the streets of Ankara March 27 to protest the government-backed education reform bill, only hours before it was set to be debated in Parliament, potentially igniting a fresh row between lawmakers from the ruling and opposition parties. ...

CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu cements his grip within the main opposition. Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu cemented his victory over the intra-party opposition yesterday and announced “a new road map” for his party highlighting “democracy, freedom and human rights” like European social-democrat movements. “The CHP is drawing a new road map focusing on the problems ...

The CHP’s amended statute, reflecting the party’s new vision under Kılıçdaroğlu, defines the party’s primary aim as the advocacy of contemporary social-democrat principles such as human rights, freedoms, labor rights and gender equality. Under the changes, approved at a stormy convention over the weekend, the old statute’s top principle – the “defense of the country’s national unity and security” – was move ...

The main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) extraordinary convention has opened amid tensions as a leading dissident lawmaker said the gathering had failed to reach the required quorum. According to Deputy Chairman Erdoğan Toprak, 839 of the 1,200 party delegates signed the attendance book in the Ankara Arena, well above the simple majority required for the convention to go ahead.  But as Chairman ...

Retreating amid a barrage of harsh criticism, the Turkish government promises to ‘ease concerns’ regarding a controversial draft to alter the education system Speaking in Antalya, Education Minister Ömer Dinçer says he understands the concerns voiced regarding the proposed changes in the education system. However, he rejects accusations that the changes will undermine the schooling of girls. AA photo The go ...

In response to criticism by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan asks Kılıçdaroğlu if he wants to ‘raise atheist generations’ Political squabbles over religion simmered in Ankara yesterday as Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan asserted that raising devout generations was part of his Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) mission. ...

The CHP’s leader requests an end to his immunity so that he can face charges that were welcomed by the PM Main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu applied yesterday for the abolition of his judicial immunity and stepped up accusations that the judiciary has become a political weapon in government hands. “You cannot intimidate me with your special-authority courts. I am not bowing down to you. I will say wh ...

A shadowy group equipped with high-tech devices is systematically wiretapping and secretly filming government opponents, a senior deputy in the main opposition has said. “That’s not the work of an ordinary gang. I wonder who has assigned that great number of people to conduct those pursuits and conduct wiretaps. Who is paying their salaries and whom do they answer to? How did they buy those expensive device ...

AKP (Ak Party) of Turkey has been kind of a phenomenon in the Turkish politics for the last decade. The charismatic leader of the party has achieved an unparallelled success by winning all the elections the party has run for and indeed won almost 50 percent of the votes in the 2011 elections. The opposition, CHP (Republican People's Party) has not been able to get anywhere near the performance of AKP in spi ...

Twenty-eight leftist youths, most of them students, went on trial in one of the most controversial cases in Turkey’s recent past. Twenty-two of the defendants who were under arrest were released by an Ankara court late yesterday. A crowd of at least 3,000 people, including lawmakers of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), academics, prominent actors and activists who ...

Turkey needs reforms urgently to secure fair representation, Emine Ülker Tarhan, deputy group chair of the Republican People’s Party, says before announcing the main opposition party’s proposal to lower the election threshold to 5 percent. The draft is the first in a series of bills that make up the ‘democracy package’ Turkey’s main opposition party has announced it will submit a series of reform proposals ...

Main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said intelligence gathered from a U.S. radar system to be stationed in eastern Turkey as part of NATO’s missile defense project will be shared with countries outside the alliance. “We’ve learned once more that our concerns [on the radar] are genuine,” the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) told reporters Oct. 26 at the 50th anniversary reception of th ...

Prime Minister Erdoğan accusses an unnamed German foundation of having illegal ties in Turkey. AA photoTurkey’s prime minister continued his accusations on Monday regarding the opposition parties’ alleged links to German foundations. PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan criticized activities by a German foundation, without naming it, claiming it was signing business agreements with municipalities run by the main opposit ...