CHP leader aims to be VP of socialist group

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

‘Our relations with the SI almost came to the brink of being frozen in 2008 and 2009’ says CHP leader Kılıçdaroğlu. DHA photo

Main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has officially petitioned to become a vice president of the Socialist International (SI), the deputy in charge of his campaign for the post has announced.

“Our relations with the SI almost came to the brink of being frozen in 2008 and 2009,” CHP Istanbul deputy Umut Oran told the Hürriyet Daily News in a telephone interview yesterday. Without citing any specific reason for this deterioration of ties, Oran suggested that a lack of proper communication had led to misunderstandings between the CHP and the SI during these years.

As a matter of fact, at the time, the CHP was being criticized for moving away from social democratic values, and the party’s policies had even led to calls for dismissal from the worldwide organization of social democratic, socialist and labor parties.

“We believe that the CHP’s efforts for a revival of social democratic values in socio-economic policies can serve as an example for leftist or social democrat movements all around the world. In this regard, the CHP may eventually play a leading role for global leftist or social democratic movements,” Oran said.

Kılıçdaroğlu’s candidacy for the prestigious seat in the SI came after the CHP congress last week. In several speeches, Kılıçdaroğlu vowed that the party would move in a more leftist and social democratic direction after the congress, adding that it would be the CHP’s “institutionalization congress.”

The next congress of the SI will take place from Aug. 30 to Sept. 1 in Cape Town, South Africa. The congress, which takes place every four years, brings together heads of government, leaders and delegates from the member parties of the SI alongside invited guests.

Meanwhile, in an interview with Turkish daily Bugün published yesterday, Kılıçdaroğlu said “Alevism is not a religion.”

“Alevism is a belief, and it is a part of Islam because it believes in the same God, prophet, and
book. Can it be a different religion? No,” Kılıçdaroğlu was quoted as saying, in remarks making it clear that he hasn’t subscribed to his party’s Tunceli deputy Hüseyin Aygün’s statement that Alevism is a religion.

New party assembly to meet on July 28
During last week’s congress, CHP delegates elected the party’s 60-seat top board, which will lead the party for a two-year period and prepare the party for local and presidential elections, both slated for 2014.

As of July 22, after objections were reviewed by official election authorities, the party assembly list became official. The new party assembly will hold its first meeting on July 28, and is expected to elect new members to the now 17-member Central Executive Board (MYK) at that meeting.