Republican People Party’s Policy Towards Syrian Refugees in Türkiye: An Example for Securitization by an Opposition Party

The Republican People's Party (RPP) of Turkey is currently the main opposition party against the ruling Justice and Development Party (JDP). While the RPP has usually been identified with a “rigid” understanding of secularism, the party has been experiencing a process of ideational change for more than a decade under the leadership of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu. This study aims to describe and explain the party’s shift to a “softer” version of secularism. Under the light of party change literature, one internal and two external factors are identified. The impact of leadership change, the internal factor, is examined with reference to major strategic and ideational changes initiated by Kılıçdaroğlu. The first major external stimulus is the global and local hegemony of post-secularism, which refers to the idea and practice of a new balance between citizenship and difference, allowing a greater space for religious arguments and images in the public sphere. The second is the transition to presidential system in Turkey, which both forced and facilitated the RPP’s search for electoral alliances with conservative parties in a personalized winner-takes-all game. It is claimed that these factors have made the RPP reassess the effectiveness of its commitment to classical secularism in meeting the renewed party goal of vote maximization. Reverse pressures on the party will also be examined in the article, with an aim of foreseeing the RPP’s leaning in the near future. Key Words: Republican People’s Party, Secularism, Post-Secular Society, Party Change JEL Classification: Z1, D72, Y80

The Attitudes of Political Parties towards Education: The 2011 Election Returns Examples of Justice and Development Party (AKP), Republican People's Party (CHP) and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP)

The Republican People's Party (CHP), Turkey's oldest party, was closed down by the military government in 1981. Since reopening in 1992, it has represented elitist modernism moderated by social democratic rhetoric. It has achieved limited electoral success because of strict domination by its leader, party infighting and inability to adapt to a changing global environment or to offer solutions to Turkey's domestic and external concerns which the electorate find credible. Currently the main opposition party, its future does not appear promising.

This article seeks to account for the prolonged inability of the Republican People's Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, CHP) to be considered as a credible alternative to the governing Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP). Accounting for this is relevant from two perspectives: the emergence of a dominant party system during the AKP decade, and the increased rhetoric and public discourse stressing the “lack of [credible] opposition parties” in the party spectrum. The article attributes the CHP's electoral malaise to a mixture structural and leadership problems specific to the party organization. This argument, however, is placed against the backdrop of the dominant distributive position that the incumbent occupies in Turkey's political arena. The AKP's domination of both national and local government, typified by a service-oriented governing style, serves to undermine not just the CHP's chances of success, but virtually all opposition parties.

This book analyses the policies of the principal party of Turkey’s left, the Republican People’s Party, both in isolation and in relation to those of its principal rivals. The major question the author sets himself is how far the Republican People’s Party has been able to distance itself from the principles of Kemalism despite efforts to do so. He also takes into account the Democratic Left Party founded in 1983 after the abolition of all former parties by the military government established in 1980. This party was founded by Bülent Ecevit, who led the Republican People’s Party in its new left-of-centre stance after his election to the leadership of the RPP in 1972. Both these social-democratic parties, the RPP in particular, inherited and found it difficult to downplay the principles on which the Kemalist Republic was founded, namely secularism, republicanism, nationalism, populism, étatism and revolutionism (or reformism). The author clearly believes that the two most difficult to discard have been nationalism and secularism.

3.6 million Syrian refugees who were forced to move to Turkey since the initiation of the civil war in Syria in 2011 have had a significant impact on Turkish politics. While the governing Justice and Development Party has fluctuated between religiously-based humanitarianism and securitization discourses, opposition parties have prioritized the issue in response to growing public discontent. Focusing on the recent repatriation debate, this article analyzes the attitudes and discourses of opposition parties towards the Syrian refugees. By drawing on the Copenhagen School securitization theory, the study examines the discourses of four opposition parties under the dimensions of economy, culture and security. The article concludes that while Republican People’s Party, Good Party and Victory Party securitize the issue to varying degrees, Peoples’ Democratic Party does not.

This article scrutinizes the determinants of the European Union (EU) policy of the Republican People's Party (CHP), the main opposition party in Turkey under the leadership of Kılıçdaroğlu. Critically discussing the role of party ideology concerning attitudes toward EU accession, the article examines whether the CHP's ideology changed after Kılıçdaroğlu and if so, how this ideological shift affected the party's euroskeptic stance. The article overall argues that the leadership change enabled the party to withdraw its nationalistic stance and embrace a social democratic rhetoric. However, the article contends that such transformation had little effect on its euroskepticism due to the persisting endogenous (the Justice and Development Party's authoritarianism) and exogenous factors (the EU's additional conditionality) that constrain the new CHP's EU-enthusiasm.

This study aims to analyze the election songs used in the election campaigns of the mayoral candidates of the Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) and the Republican People's Party (CHP) in İstanbul, Ankara, and İzmir on March 31, 2024, Türkiye’s Local Administrations Elections. The data collected using the case study methodology was analyzed using the content analysis method in the MAXQDA program. The findings showed that both party candidates preferred moving/exuberant songs which appealed to the voters at a high level in their election campaigns. They moderately preferred original election songs, adapted popular songs, and songs conveying socio-psychological messages. They showed a low preference for songs that criticized the policies of the opposition or government, slow or stationary songs, songs promising prosperity, and message-oriented songs. Therefore, there is little possibility for the two parties' candidates to differentiate from each other in the use of music. The results of the similarity analysis revealed that the songs belonging to the same party showed a high level of similarity with each other. In contrast, the songs of different parties showed low similarity. The study implications are helpful for researchers conducting studies on similar issues.

Fiscal transfers in Turkey: Do politics matter?

Hungary's voters opt for state-owned hospitals

Significance The former ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is regaining the politcal ascendancy, with its sights focused on early elections. It wants a caretaker government until then. Its best chance of forming one looks like a deal with the Republican People's Party (CHP), whose top echelons are eager for a spell in government after years in the wilderness. Impacts A second general election later this year, or perhaps next, is more likely than a durable coalition. If there are fresh elections, AKP could regain its overall working majority, though probably only by a narrow margin. Opposition parties' inability to cooperate to form an alternative government means they will have little impact on national policies. President Erdogan will continue ruling as de facto executive president without too much regard for legal or constitutional detail. With no sign of the two-thirds majority needed to change the system, Erdogan's position is over-extended and potentially vulnerable.

İzmir’in işgalinden sonra Antalya Müdafaa-i Hukuk Cemiyeti, Eylül 1919 tarihinde ise Finike ve Kaş Müdafaa-i Hukuk Cemiyeti kuruldu. 12 Mayıs 1924 tarihinde Antalya Müdafaa-i Hukuk Cemiyeti, Halk Fırkası’na dönüştüğü sırada Finike ve Kaş kazalarında da aynı işlem gerçekleştirildi. Cumhuriyet devrinde Finike ve Kaş kaza idarelerinin kendilerine ait binaları olmayıp farklı mekânlarda hizmet verdikleri görülmektedir. II. Dünya savaşından sonra kazalarda Halkevi’nin yapımına başlaması ile partinin birer mülkü olabilmiştir. Ama Finike ve Kaş Halkevi binalarının tamamlanması uzunca bir zaman almıştır. Demokrat Parti’nin 8 Ağustos 1951 tarihinde çıkardığı kanun kapsamında Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi’nin malları, Halkevi ve Halkodası hazineye devredilmiştir. Böylece Finike ve Kaş kazasında Cumhuriyet Halk Parti’nin herhangi bir mülkü kalmamıştır. Bu çalışmada Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi’nin Finike ve Kaş Kaza İdare Heyetleri’nin faaliyetleri ile söz konusu kazaların Halkevlerinin inşası üzerinde durulmuştur.

ABSTRACTWhen Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, as the Prime Minister of the Turkish Republic, declared his government's intention to raise a ‘religious generation’, his proposition drew harsh criticisms from Turkey's secularists, who argued that doing so would clearly challenge the secular nature of the Turkish state. Yet it may come as a surprise to many that it was not a conservative party with Islamist leanings that first experimented with the idea of relying on religious education as an antidote to the perceived moral decadence of the society. Rather, it was the secularist party, the Republican People's Party, which attempted to use religious instruction for the same purpose during the heyday of Kemalism in the 1940s. Against this backdrop, providing an analysis of how the Republican People's Party had come to the point of offering religious education to school children and how it justified this policy can shed light on today's debate on secularism and the secular character of the Turkish state.

In this study, the policies of the Republican People's Party (RPP) in the general and local elections held in 1946, the discourses of party members and party supporters were discussed in the context of the concept of “democracy,” and their effects on domestic politics were searched. First of all, external and internal factors that were effective in Turkey's multi-party system were discussed. In this context, the victory of the democracy front in the World War II, the signing of the United Nations Constitution, and the necessity to take measures against the increasing Soviet threat caused Turkey to turn its face to the West. All these external factors signaled the democratic steps that would take place in Turkey in the years following 1945. In addition, the socio-economic problems experienced before and after the war, the pressures of the RPP government, and the extreme dissatisfaction of the people due to all these reasons made the political system be bound to change. In addition to these problems, the disagreements in the RPP regarding the “The Land Distribution Law”, “Budget Proposed Law” and the “Memorandum of the Four,” which caused great debates in domestic politics, were mentioned. As a result of those as mentioned above external and internal factors, how Turkey turned into a multi-party system was mentioned, and in this context, the establishment of the Democrat Party (DP) and the expectations and discourses of the RPP about this party were discussed. Afterward, the effects of the II. RPP Extraordinary Congress, which had a great impact on domestic politics, were mentioned. In this congress, RPP also decided to hold the general election earlier than planned, together with the local election. With the early elections, the RPP wanted to show the world public opinion that the system was democratic and tried to preserve the current one-party rule by preventing opposition parties from getting stronger. The study has an important and unique quality in terms of showing that democracy could not be fully adopted due to the policies and discourses of the RPP and that it could not find an applicable area within the one-party system. The main purpose of the research was to include the politics of domination that the RPP was trying to establish on the DP and the entire state system, by addressing the anti-democratic discourses and political steps of the RPP. The literature review method was used in the research, and archival sources constituted most of the research. In this context, the RPP's policies on democracy in the 1946 elections, the discourses of party members and supporters of the party were investigated by analyzing the important national and local newspapers of the period, the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA), and political party minutes, party programs and election manifestos. The study has revealed that the RPP's policies regarding the 1946 elections, the discourses of party members and party supporters were incompatible with the concept of democracy and that this concept could not be assimilated. Especially what happened in the general election has caused this election to be remembered as a “shady election” in Turkish political history. As a result of the events that took place in both elections, it has been understood that the RPP was trying to maintain its position in the state with its traditional, tutelary one-party understanding of democracy rather than trying to maintain the multi-party democratic system.

Türk Siyasi Tarihi, 1945’te demokrasi adına önemli bir döneme girerek çok partili hayata geçmiş; dört yıl sonra da demokrasi daha da sağlamlaşmıştır. 1950 Genel Seçimleri iktidar ve muhalefette yer değişikliğine yol açmıştır. Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi’nden Demokrat Parti’ye geçen siyasi erkte ipi göğüsleyen isim olarak karşımıza Adnan Menderes çıkmaktadır. Menderes, on yıl boyunca partinin genel başkanlığını ve başbakanlığı üstlenmiştir. Ayrıca Demokrat Parti’nin halka tanıtılması, parti politikalarının halkın anlayabileceği şekilde anlatılması hep Menderes vasıtasıyla olmuştur. Bu nedenle muhalefet, iktidara gelebilmek adına verdiği mücadelede ana rakip olarak Menderes’i görmüştür. Menderes ise kendi üzerinden gerçekleştirilen eleştirileri göğüslemeye çalışmıştır ki bu durum onu daha öne çıkarmıştır. Giderek artan bu politik mücadelenin neticesi ise demokrasiden vazgeçmek olmuştur. 27 Mayıs’ta ordunun müdahalesi ile Demokrat Parti’nin iktidarına, başbakan Menderes’in de hayatına son verilmiştir. 27 Mayıs’ın nedenlerini sıralarken Demokrat Parti’nin politikalarından ziyade Menderes’in siyasi karakteri tartışılmalıdır ve aslında günümüzde de özellikle sosyal medyada 27 Mayıs ve 17 Eylül tarihlerinde Adnan Menderes’in olumlu ve olumsuz özellikleri üzerinden paylaşım yapılmaktadır. Ayrıca 1960’tan günümüze kadar Demokrat Parti’nin devamı olan partilerle muhalefet partilerinin söylemlerinde de Adnan Menderes sıkça yer almaktadır. Bu sebeple hazırlanan çalışmada Menderes’in siyasi karakteri üzerinden 1950’li yıllar ve 27 Mayıs değerlendirilmiştir. Adnan Menderes’in toplumu analiz edebilmesi, halk-lider ilişkisinde samimi tavırları, gücünü halktan aldığı için muhalefetin gücünü önemsememesi üzerine çizilebilecek siyasi duruşunun 1950’li yılların politikasını ve demokrasisini nasıl etkilediği sorusuna cevap bulmaya çalışılmıştır. Muhalefetin yalnızca diğer partilerden değil, parti içinden gelmesi ve tek kişi olma halinin eleştirilmesine de değinilmiştir.