Our nominees embrace all society, says Turkish main opposition CHP head

Okan Konuralp ANKARA

‘At a time when the government has divided society, we have initiated a process that embraces all parts of society,’ says CHP head Kılıçdaroğlu. AA photo

Having presented the main opposition Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) list of candidates to run for parliament in the June 7 elections, CHP head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu has said the party has prepared a comprehensive list embracing all Turkish society, including women, disabled people and ethnic minority candidates.

“At a time when the government has divided society, we have initiated a process that embraces all parts of society,” said Kılıçdaroğlu.

He added that Selina Özuzun Doğan, who is a Turkish citizen of Armenian origin and is the CHP’s top nominee from Istanbul’s second election area, shared an important message with the world through her candidacy.

“Doğan’s candidacy is an important message for the world. We do not want division in this society. We want to grow and develop together,” said Kılıçdaroğlu, adding that “the CHP accepted any kind of meaning” attributed to Doğan’s candidacy on the centenary of the 1915 killings of Ottoman Armenians.

Özcan Purcu, who is a representative from Turkey’s Roma community, is also among the nominees CHP presented from İzmir. Kılıçdaroğlu said that if he is elected, Purcu will become the first ethnic Roma person to be represented at the Turkish parliament.

By nominating ethnic minority candidates to run for parliament, the CHP has once again opened the doors to minorities as CHP deputies for the first time in 69 years, when Greek origin deputy Nikola Fakaçelli was elected to parliament in 1946.

103 women candidates

A total of 103 women candidates were listed in the CHP’s deputy nominees, with female candidates taking the top places of the lists in eleven provinces, including Ankara, İstanbul and  İzmir. In Istanbul, eight women from the second, seven women from the third, and six women from the first election areas were listed.

Şafak Pavey will run in the first place from Istanbul’s first voting area, while Selin Sayek Böke, an economist who recently joined the CHP, will run from the first place in İzmir’s first election area. A woman candidate, Saniye Barut, also got the first spot of the list in Turkey’s eastern province of Tunceli.

The parliamentary nominees of CHP were selected through primary elections in late March, which made up around 85 percent of the lists. The party assembly discussed the rest of the candidates in an hours-long meeting on April 6 that was chaired by CHP head Kılıçdaroğlu.

Kılıçdaroğlu said the party’s primary elections in 55 provinces were an indicator of the value that the CHP places on democracy.