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On one hand, the Democratic Left Party, or DSP, elected Masum Türker last week to replace Zeki Sezer as its chairman, while on the other hand, the center-right Democrat Party, or DP, replaced Süleyman Soylu with a veteran Hüsamettin Cindoruk as its chairman. It both parties what happened indeed was beyond a simple change in leadership.
In the DP the contest for leadership was in a way a late revanche to the 2003 convention of the former True Path Party, or DYP, that brought Tansu Çiller to the helm of the party after party leadership was vacated with Süleyman Demirel becoming the ninth president of the country. At the time Demirel had said he would not go to the presidential office with the government under one arm and the party under the other, an obvious reference to what late Turgut Özal did, and tried to stay away, at least publicly, in the contest in the DYP to pick a successor for him as party leader. It was obvious for many people that Demirel wanted Hüsamettin Cindoruk to be his successor as party leader. Cindoruk did not want to post at the time, Demirel loyalists divided between candidates Köksal Toptan and İsmet Sezgin, and Tansu Çiller became the new party leader. At the DP convention, the race was between Cindoruk, supported by Demirel as well as former Motherland Party, or ANAP, leader Mesut Yılmaz, and Soylu, supported by Çiller and the loyalists of the Fethullah Gülen movement.
Cindoruk was contesting on a platform stressing the need for unity in the center-right, while Soylu was stressing commitment to democracy, consolidation of civilian rule and accusing indirectly both Cindoruk and Demirel of being supporters of military coups and the so-called "Ergenekon gang" accused in two thick volumes of indictments of trying to plot a military takeover to oust the Islamist Justice and Development Party, or AKP, administration.
It was obvious that the AKP was scared that the downward trend in its popularity, which was demonstrated with the more than 8 percentage point decrease to 38 percent from the previous 47 percent, might be accelerated if a credible center-right political alternative emerged on the political spectrum of the country. Indeed, the more Cindoruk stressed the need to forge unity in center-right and declared that if elected he would establish a commission which would speedily engage in talks with other center-right parties with the aim and intention of establishing a unity for the best interests of democratic and secular republic the attacks in the conservative and Islamist media in allegiance with the AKP increased.
Soon after he was elected as new DP leader, Cindoruk received a call from the ANAP leader and the two have agreed to meet immediately after the May 20 foundation anniversary of ANAP and discuss merger of the two parties.
Will Cindoruk succeed in forging a united center-right that could offer fresh hopes to the Turkish electorate? Can that united center-right be an alternative to the AKP? What will be the impact of Abdullatif Çener’s efforts to establish a new party on Cindoruk’s efforts?
Türker takeover in DSP
For the first time since the DSP was established by Rahşan Ecevit in 1985, at a time when her husband, the legendary leader of Turkish left, was still banned from active party politics, not an Ecevit or someone supported by Rahşan Ecevit, but a Masum Türker who contested against 15 other candidates, including former Ecevit-picked party leader Zeki Sezer and Rahşan Ecevit’s candidate, Alemdar Yalçın, became the new leader of the party.
It can be argued that Türker’s election indeed marked the start of the DSP converting itself from an Ecevit fan club into a full-fledged political party. It can as well be argued that if the election of Türker as party leader despite opposition to him by Rahşan Ecevit was evidence of not only her faded influence on the party, but also an indication that the DSP has completed its life cycle and soon will become history.
However, for most people, as Deniz Baykal is considered for the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, Rahşan Ecevit has always been the greatest obstacle for the DSP’s success and that if Turker’s election is a demonstration that she is finally "out" of the DSP Ğ can no longer manipulate the party according to her political designs Ğ perhaps the DSP may emerge as the new hope for Turkish nationalist-left.
Still, bringing back to life a dead DSP, making it a hope of the masses once again, will be no easy task for Türker and his team.
Cindoruk was contesting on a platform stressing the need for unity in the center-right, while Soylu was stressing commitment to democracy, consolidation of civilian rule and accusing indirectly both Cindoruk and Demirel of being supporters of military coups and the so-called "Ergenekon gang" accused in two thick volumes of indictments of trying to plot a military takeover to oust the Islamist Justice and Development Party, or AKP, administration.
It was obvious that the AKP was scared that the downward trend in its popularity, which was demonstrated with the more than 8 percentage point decrease to 38 percent from the previous 47 percent, might be accelerated if a credible center-right political alternative emerged on the political spectrum of the country. Indeed, the more Cindoruk stressed the need to forge unity in center-right and declared that if elected he would establish a commission which would speedily engage in talks with other center-right parties with the aim and intention of establishing a unity for the best interests of democratic and secular republic the attacks in the conservative and Islamist media in allegiance with the AKP increased.
Soon after he was elected as new DP leader, Cindoruk received a call from the ANAP leader and the two have agreed to meet immediately after the May 20 foundation anniversary of ANAP and discuss merger of the two parties.
Will Cindoruk succeed in forging a united center-right that could offer fresh hopes to the Turkish electorate? Can that united center-right be an alternative to the AKP? What will be the impact of Abdullatif Çener’s efforts to establish a new party on Cindoruk’s efforts?
Türker takeover in DSP
For the first time since the DSP was established by Rahşan Ecevit in 1985, at a time when her husband, the legendary leader of Turkish left, was still banned from active party politics, not an Ecevit or someone supported by Rahşan Ecevit, but a Masum Türker who contested against 15 other candidates, including former Ecevit-picked party leader Zeki Sezer and Rahşan Ecevit’s candidate, Alemdar Yalçın, became the new leader of the party.
It can be argued that Türker’s election indeed marked the start of the DSP converting itself from an Ecevit fan club into a full-fledged political party. It can as well be argued that if the election of Türker as party leader despite opposition to him by Rahşan Ecevit was evidence of not only her faded influence on the party, but also an indication that the DSP has completed its life cycle and soon will become history.
However, for most people, as Deniz Baykal is considered for the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, Rahşan Ecevit has always been the greatest obstacle for the DSP’s success and that if Turker’s election is a demonstration that she is finally "out" of the DSP Ğ can no longer manipulate the party according to her political designs Ğ perhaps the DSP may emerge as the new hope for Turkish nationalist-left.
Still, bringing back to life a dead DSP, making it a hope of the masses once again, will be no easy task for Türker and his team.
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