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 ...

Kılıçdaroğlu slams FM on foreign policy Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is the most helpless foreign minister Turkey has ever had, Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said Aug. 3. “I am saying he is the most helpless foreign minister because his starting vision was to have ‘zero problems’ with neighbors, but his ending point has been contention with everyone,” Kılıçdaroğlu said in an ...

Main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu recently criticized the government's stance on Syria, saying Turkey is now "a country in trouble." "We do not want our people to pay the price for Western interests," Kılıçdaroğlu said. "We do not want Turkey to be dragged into the swamp." "In summary, we do not want war," he added. Kılıçdaroğlu likened the AKP's stance to "shooting someone else's bird with someone ...

In a watershed for Turkish politics, the leaders of the two largest parties agree to a joint road map to end the Kurdish problem Turkish politics witnessed a historic breakthrough yesterday as the ruling and main opposition parties agreed on a road map for the solution of the decades-old Kurdish question, with or without the contribution of Parliament’s other two political parties. Prime Minister Recep Tayy ...

CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu says he has asked for a meeting with Prime Minister Erdoğan to discuss an initiative on the Kurdish issue. Erdoğan, who is visiting Diyarbakır on June 2 is expected to have the final word Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has asked for an appointment with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to discuss his party’s proposal for the settlement of ...

Turkish police have launched a third wave of raids as part of a probe into the Feb. 28 post-modern coup of 1997 amid complaints by the main opposition’s leader that the investigation is turning into a "witch hunt." A specially authorized prosecutor in Ankara has ordered the detentions of 13 military personnel located in Ankara, Istanbul, İzmir and Kars. The former General Commander of the Gendarmerie Forces ...

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. ...

Turkish parties continue trading pointed barbs with the prime minister praising a controversial education bill passed contentiously at a brawl-marred panel while two opposition parties accuse him of ‘being a dictator’ Turkey’s prime minister faced mounting charges of authoritarianism yesterday in a simmering row over planned education reform, but he brushed aside the accusations and hailed the bill’s “histo ...

Ninety-one percent of Turks lack adequate information on how planned education reform will affect their children, according to a poll by the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which has called for greater public debate on a contentious related motion. “This situation is unacceptable for any democracy. How can we trust a government that is doing business in secret?” CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğl ...

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 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 ...

Main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu expressed worry yesterday for the fate of prosecutors that have opened up a corruption probe into members of the Public Procurement Authority (KİK), suggesting they could face the government’s wrath. “We will follow the issue closely to see whether the prosecutors and police who are conducting the operation will end up in trouble. Those who are being investigated ar ...

Republican People’s Party leader Kılıçdaroğlu criticizes Prime Minister Erdoğan’s support for a probe into the main oppostion leader. ‘The victim of yesterday has become the oppressor of today’ says Kılıçdaroğlu Main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu harshly denounced yesterday the prime minister for backing a prosecution attempt to put him on trial as a war of words raged on between the two. “The prime ...

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 ...

Ankara is hit by a new political earthquake, as a prosecutor looks to try the CHP’s leader for ‘influencing a fair trial’ The public prosecutor in Istanbul’s Silivri district is seeking the revocation of the main opposition leader’s parliamentary immunity so that he can face charges of “attempting to influence a fair trial” and “insulting public servants on duty.”  Public Prosecutor Ali İşgören sent an offi ...

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 ...

Main opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu visited a Somali refugee camp in Kenya on Wednesday to hand out humanitarian supplies. Kılıçdaroğlu met with camp officials who received aid that was donated by the CHP and prepared and conveyed by the Turkish Red Crescent, and talked to Somali refugees living in the camp. The delegation is also due to meet with U.N. officials and Somali community leaders, Loğoğlu t ...

The chief of the main opposition party has called on the parliamentary speaker to do his duty for parliamentarians who were not released after being elected on June 12 general elections. “Mr. Cemil Çiçek should do his job,” Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, chief of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, told the Hürriyet Daily News in an interview Thursday in his office. Two CHP deputies, former journalist Mustafa Balba ...

The leader of Turkey’s main opposition has said his party does not want to create a parliamentary gridlock following an important meeting with the legislature’s newly elected speaker on Thursday. "We do not mean to boycott Parliament, we are trying to overcome this shameful act against democracy," Republican People's Party, or CHP, leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said. Kılıçdaroğlu met with speaker Cemil Çiçek in ...

The main opposition leader sent a letter Friday to the international community, explaining his party’s reasons for not taking oath in Turkey’s Parliament on Tuesday. Eight deputies elected are currently in custody due to ongoing court cases against them and several of these MPs have been kept in arbitrary detention for more than 800 days, said Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, leader of the Republican People’s Party, or ...

Turkey's main opposition leader addressed party members Tuesday and said the party’s deputies would not take their parliamentary oaths until two incarcerated party colleagues were released from prison and allowed to do so as well. Republican People's Party, or CHP, leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has severely criticized a court decision preventing elected CHP deputies Mehmet Haberal and Mustafa Balbay from enteri ...

RESULTS The first unconfirmed poll results showed that AK PARTİ (currently ruling) would be the winner of the elections with a majority of over 50%.. This would mean they would get about 330 deputies into the parliament to give them the power to undertake many intitatives including amendments to the institution. Eventually however, AK Parti was not able to surpass 49,9% meaning they were not granted the pow ...

Political parties are making their final push to win voters ahead of the June 12 general elections, in which 550 parliamentary seats – and a planned rewriting of the country’s Constitution – are at stake. Party leaders will address their supporters for a final time Saturday as the fierce race draws to a close. Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will spend Saturday in Istanbul, where he is expected to visit ...