In recent years, one of the most used concepts within the CHP has been “will”.
First it was called “the will for change”.
Then the “will of the organization”...
Then “the will of 2 million members”.
It was not enough.
The political campaigns around Ekrem İmamoğlu did not stop with CHP members this time;
“The rhetoric of ”15.5 million votes“, ”25 million signatures“, ”the nation has risen up" was circulated.
And what was the result?
Apart from the social media show, there has been no legal outcome,
what an institutional response has emerged,
nor a real mechanism to change the political system.
Because modern states are not based on slogans;
governed by law.
Neither do political parties with hashtags;
survives by statute.
No PR organization,
no digital campaign,
no signature show,
cannot be substituted for law and institutional mechanisms.
But certain circles of the CHP have been doing the opposite for a long time.
Perception instead of real politics,
showcase instead of institutionalization,
They replace the organization with social media mobilization.
That's where the problem starts.
Because structures that turn politics into a constant digital excitement lose touch with reality over time.
And in the end, a contradiction emerges:
Why is the will of two million members so precious today?
If the will of the membership was so sacred;
Why wasn't there a primary election in the selection of mayoral candidates?
Why wasn't the organization consulted?
Why were decisions shaped among narrow cadres?
Was Özkan Yalım forgotten when he was appointed?
Was democracy suspended when Böcek was made a candidate?
In Hasbi...
Tanju...
In Reza...
And in many other controversial choices, did the will of the organization not come to mind?
On that day, the only thing left for the members to do was to put up posters.
It fell to receive SMS.
The dues have fallen.
It fell to applause.
Narrow political circles made the decisions.
Now, when it comes to the battle for seats, the discourse of “the will of 2 million members” is suddenly sanctified,
It looks more like a reflex to protect the power space than democratic sensitivity.
Because what is being defended here is not a principle.
Position.
This is not about democracy;
who will control the sphere of power.
And that is precisely why the CHP's current crisis is not an ordinary internal debate.
This is the crisis;
PR politics replacing the organization,
social media hysteria replacing institutionalism,
is the result of a long transformation in which political reason has been replaced by slogan apparatuses.
IS THE CHP GOING LEFT, OR IS A NEW ANAP BEING BUILT?
The biggest illusion of today's transformation within the CHP is this:
Some people still think this is an “intra-left struggle”.
But there is not even a real ideological fight.
No one is discussing nationalism.
No one is talking about the production economy.
Nobody is raising labor politics.
No one is producing a new social democratic program against income inequality.
And yet we constantly hear slogans of “change”, “innovation”, “new politics”, “social transformation”.
So what is really changing?
It is not the ideology that has changed;
the character of the party.
Because when the political model emerging within the CHP today is carefully analyzed, it is not a social democratic transformation,
center-right restoration is emerging.
Let's say it more clearly:
A populist, statist, publicist social democratic line in the classical sense cannot emerge from the structure centered on Ekrem İmamoğlu.
It would be a new generation of ANAP.
Because there is now more showcase politics than ideological depth.
Leftism is on the signboard.
Social democracy is written on posters.
But the political reflex circulating inside belongs elsewhere.
Recruited cadres from the right...
Growing power networks with municipal resources...
PR companies
Image engineering
Liberal market language...
Municipality relations managed by a conglomerate mentality...
And career politics that sees ideology as a “burden”...
When all this comes together, it is not a populist transformation;
A new power organization is emerging, packaged in a center-right aesthetic.
This was the logic behind the rise of the ANAP.
To appear above ideologies...
To be able to play to all audiences at the same time...
Creating a showcase with no political identity but high media power...
The atmosphere within the CHP today increasingly resembles this.
Ideology is retreating,
communication strategy stands out.
The organization is retreating,
municipality-centered power relations are growing.
The political struggle is retreating,
PR operations are becoming decisive.
And most importantly:
The historical weight of the Republican People's Party is increasingly being reduced to the logic of “brand management”.
That is why today's crisis in the CHP is not just a name war.
This is also a historical break in what the soul of the party will be.
CHP;
publicist,
populist,
with the seriousness of a state,
will it remain a social democratic party with a strong organizational culture?
Or clustered around metropolitan municipalities,
Governed by the language of PR,
its ideological backbone is weak,
will it evolve into a new generation of center-right organization determined by personal career networks?
This is the question that needs to be discussed.
Because a significant part of the society now feels this:
There is more than a movement of ideas,
there is power management.
People are not just looking for a structure to win elections.
At the same time, they want to see a political mind that inspires confidence.
But the image emerging in certain sections of the CHP produces the opposite:
The controversy of allegations of fraud...
Relationships of interest
Municipal lobbies
Social media operations...
And cliques constantly trying to liquidate each other...
This picture does not give hope to the people,
insecurity.
And perhaps the most painful part is this:
An important part of what is being presented as “change” today,
not a change of mindset;
just a change of personnel.
THE POLITICS OF PRODUCING “TRAITORS” AND LYNCHING IN CHP
One of the biggest problems of the CHP today is not only the organizational crisis.
At the same time, the party has been plunged into a serious crisis of political reason.
Because structures that cannot produce ideas start to produce enemies over time.
Those who cannot produce a political program produce slogans.
Those who cannot create an institutional culture create a lynch culture.
Those who cannot establish a basis for democratic debate constantly invent new “traitors”.
This is exactly the atmosphere that has developed within the CHP in recent years.
Those whom they could not praise yesterday, today they declare as “traitors”.
What they applauded yesterday, today they lynch on social media.
What they carried on their shoulders yesterday, today they target with discrediting operations.
And they think this is politics.
A significant part of those shouting “Kılıçdaroğlu is a traitor” today,
tomorrow he will shout “Traitor Ozgur” with the same anger.
Because the principle is not the issue here.
Neither is loyalty.
It's all about the balance of power.
Whoever loses the force field,
The next day he is targeted with the label of “betrayal”.
This is why the culture of healthy political debate is gradually disappearing within the CHP.
It is being replaced by social media hysteria.
Troll order is coming.
PR apparatus is coming.
Slogan politicians are coming.
And the result is a frightening mental desertification.
Today many people in the party are afraid to speak out.
Because with the slightest criticism, he risks being labeled as an “AKP supporter”, a “palace-ist”, a “collaborator” or a “traitor”.
This language does not only silence people;
it also destroys the party's capacity to think.
Because politics is done with the mind,
not herd psychology.
But in certain circles of the CHP, the culture of digital shouting has become dominant instead of generating ideas.
The task of a group of slogan apparatuses is no longer to think,
instant goal setting.
Who will be targeted that day?
Who will be lynched?
Who will be declared a “traitor to the cause”?
All energy is based on this.
The historical strength of the Republican People's Party was quite the opposite.
CHP was once the biggest political school in Turkey.
Generating ideas
Discussing the state model...
Speaking on the economy.
Developing a community project...
It was a center of intellectual weight.
Today there are many debates,
“who's going to liquidate who?”.
Because the center of politics has ceased to be ideas;
It became a war of position.
And as a natural consequence, the party is getting smaller and smaller.
Because society sees this:
There is no discussion of a grand vision for the future of the country.
But there is a huge internal power struggle.
This is why people are angry with the CHP.
Because citizens are thinkers, not shouters,
producing solutions, not insults,
They want to see a reassuring opposition, not a lynching one.
But most of the time the opposite is the case:
Troll armies
Coordinated attacks
PR operations
And a digital political culture constantly looking for new “traitors”...
Let's be clear:
If a party is always looking for traitors,
there is no more idea generation.
Because strong political movements do not create enemies for themselves,
by generating ideas.
This is exactly what the CHP needs most today:
To get out of the lynch culture and return to political reason.
FRAUD, FEAR AND “ABSOLUTE NULLITY”: TALKING ABOUT THE CONSEQUENCES AND HIDING THE CAUSES
Today, as the crisis within the CHP is being discussed, everyone is focusing on the outcome.
Court ruling
On the congress debate...
Images in front of the headquarters...
Slogans
To their challenge
But no one is asking the question:
Why did the CHP become like this?
Because the decision of “absolute nullity” did not fall from the sky.
This table,
is the natural result of years of accumulated political decay.
The allegations that have surfaced...
Power networks around municipalities...
The controversy of allegations of fraud...
Tender relations
The new political order growing on the axis of headquarters-municipalities...
And the deepening atmosphere of fear within the party...
All this has been growing for years.
But every criticism was suppressed as “treason”.
Whoever spoke was silenced.
Whoever questioned them was targeted.
Whoever voiced discomfort was labeled either an “AKP supporter” or a “palace man”.
As a result, the CHP lost its internal control mechanism.
And every unchecked structure produces its own crisis over time.
This is exactly what is happening today.
Because it is no longer just about political failure.
A significant part of the society began to distrust some CHP cadres.
Ali is associated with another sham...
Veli comes up with another network of relationships.
Muhittin and his entourage are discussed in separate files.
But then they still try to market “morality”, “clean politics”, “change”.
One inevitably asks the question:
What is the CHP doing with people whose names are constantly associated with suspicion, interest relations and municipal rents?
Is this really what the Republican People's Party was founded for?
Because people who vote for the CHP do not want to support the opposition just because they are angry with the government.
They also want to trust.
They want to see a seriousness that can run a state.
But the picture that has emerged in recent years produces the opposite feeling in many people:
“They cannot even establish a healthy structure within themselves.”
It is precisely this crisis of trust that is the ground for the “absolute nullity” debate.
So it is not only a legal issue.
It is also a moral and political crisis.
And perhaps for the first time in CHP history,
The possibility has arisen for some structures within the party to be held accountable both politically, legally and conscientiously.
This is the main reason for today's panic.
Because it is not only about fear of seats.
It is also the fear of the truth that might be revealed.
That is why there is a constant language of agitation.
The rhetoric of “coup”, “tutelage”, “we will not surrender the party” is constantly being circulated.
Because the more the crisis is magnified,
the more the possibility of accountability is pushed to the background.
But the reality is quite the opposite:
For the CHP to stand up again, it must first confront its own internal decay.
Because absolute nullity is not the reason;
is the result.
Main reason,
is the lack of supervision that has been growing for years.
Main reason,
is the replacement of organization by networks of power.
Main reason,
is that the party is being governed by PR operations instead of political reason.
And the real reason,
It is the erosion of the institutional seriousness of the Republican People's Party.
So what needs to be done today is not sloganeering;
is to be able to courageously question the decay that produced that result.
Because without purification there can be no re-establishment.
NO REBIRTH WITHOUT PURIFICATION
Today's crisis within the CHP is only a court decision,
a congress debate
or to read it as a personal showdown would be a big mistake.
Because the issue is bigger than individuals.
Main issue;
The political character with which the Republican People's Party will continue on its path.
We are at a crossroads.
What about CHP?;
municipality-centered power networks,
PR politics,
of personal career coalitions,
of the controversy,
and a new generation with a weakened ideological backbone will drift further under the influence of center-rightism...
Or it will go through a painful but historical purification process and return to its founding settings.
This is precisely why it would be incomplete to look at the issue of “absolute nullity” today as a purely technical-legal debate.
Because absolute nullity is not a reason;
is a consequence.
Years of growing unaccountability,
disorganization,
municipality-centered power politics,
a culture of internal party purges,
the controversy surrounding the
and is the natural consequence of a loss of institutional wisdom.
That is why what needs to be done today is not slogan politics.
What social media hysteria...
What digital heroism...
Nor is it constantly producing new “traitors”...
What the CHP needs;
is to reproduce seriousness.
It is to re-institutionalize.
It is about rebuilding trust.
And most importantly:
is to regenerate a political backbone.
The reason why many people are repositioning themselves around Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu today is not just loyalty to one person.
It is also an expression of discontent with the drift that has been growing for years.
Because despite all the criticism Kılıçdaroğlu faced,
CHP's institutional memory,
state seriousness,
organizational culture
and is seen as one of the last great thresholds representing party discipline.
The support around him,
rather than a “worship of the leader”;
CHP is completely municipalized,
It's PRized,
It is a reflex against its transformation into a structure that has lost its ideological backbone.
Of course Kılıçdaroğlu can also be criticized.
Their mistakes can also be discussed.
But today the issue has gone beyond individuals.
Because that is what is being discussed now,
Whether the CHP will be a party of ideas in the future,
or whether it will turn into a gigantic power organization clustered only around metropolitan municipalities.
And a significant part of society is seriously uncomfortable with the second possibility.
That's why today's crisis,
It has also revealed the necessity for a historical purification.
Because sometimes it is a political movement,
must first confront the rot within itself in order to move on.
This is painful.
It is corrosive.
It is offensive.
But it is inevitable.
What needs to be done today;
“who's going to beat who?”,
It is a major political restoration that will reunite the CHP with its founding values.
Re-establishment of the primary election mechanism...
Re-strengthening the organization...
Making municipal-capital relations transparent...
The operation of internal party control mechanisms...
Returning to a merit-based staffing approach...
And the CHP's reorientation to a populist, publicist and state-serious line...
This is the real solution.
Because the Republican People's Party is not an ordinary political party.
This party,
It is the founding political backbone of the Republic of Turkey.
And constituent parties are not just for winning elections,
state seriousness,
social trust
and to uphold political morality.
This is exactly what is needed today:
The thinker, not the shouter,
producing, not lynching,
Not PR but politics,
A CHP that carries the Republic, not personal careers.
Because without purification there is no rebirth.