At first glance, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's speech at the CHP headquarters may seem like a response to internal party debates.
However, the most striking part of the speech was neither the congress discussions nor the showdowns within the CHP.
What was remarkable was the re-emergence of a discourse that had been far from the center of politics for a long time.
Kılıçdaroğlu said from the rostrum:
“Let the sycophants of the palace listen, let the barons listen; let the Gang of Five who exploit the rights of the orphans who have not lost a feather here listen; let the drug barons who poison our streets listen, let the remnants of the mafia listen...”
This is not an ordinary political statement.
Because Kılıçdaroğlu is not naming names here; he is describing an order.
He places the power networks, economic circles of interest, criminal organizations and rent mechanisms that he believes have formed around the political power in the same photograph.
And with the sentence that follows, he actually gives the essence of the speech:
“As long as Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu is alive, we will never let you pass.”
This statement is not addressed to rivals within the CHP.
It is a re-statement of the political story he has been trying to build for years.
Let us remember
When Kılıçdaroğlu was at his most effective, the main axis of the opposition was not identity politics but the politics of economic justice.
“The ”Gang of Five" rhetoric was a symbol of this.
Because that discourse was directly related to the daily lives of citizens.
It linked the toll guarantee for a bridge, a highway tender, a public contract or payments made from the budget to the missing money in citizens' pockets.
It is no coincidence that the same concepts are being used again today.
Kılıçdaroğlu is in fact reminding the CHP of the battleground it believes it has lost in recent years.
Because for him, it is not only a question of who is the chairman.
The issue is how the relationship between political power and economic power is established in Turkey.
That's why he talked about the missing billions of dollars in his speech.
That is why he talked about bringing the nation's money back into the nation's coffers.
That's why he put the “Gang of Five” back in the crosshairs.
The feeling between the lines of the speech was this:
CHP may be busy with its own internal crises.
Leaders can change.
Governments can change.
But Kılıçdaroğlu has not given up on the fundamental claim at the center of his political legacy:
The fundamental problem in Turkey is not only who is in power, but also who is using public power for whose benefit.
Perhaps that is why the most important sentence of the speech was not directed at the CHP, but outwards.
And perhaps for the first time in a long time, Kılıçdaroğlu described himself not as a former chairman, but as the leader of a struggle he felt was unfinished.
That was the main message from the rostrum:
“I'm still here, and I don't consider the account closed yet.”