Squabbles mar CHP’s meeting

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

Intra-party tensions within the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) surfaced again yesterday as a lawmaker known for being close to former leader Deniz Baykal accused Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu of weakening the party.

Taking the floor at the CHP’s party assembly meeting, Osman Kaptan referred to recent polemics over the 1938 Dersim killings and said Kılıçdaroğlu’s involvement in the spat had brought the party against Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of both the CHP and the modern Turkish Republic, party sources told the Hürriyet Daily News.

“You should either write a book or be a party leader. Your attitude is harming the party,” Kaptan told Kılıçdaroğlu, sources said.

Kılıçdaroğlu intervened and said those who voice such types of criticism were not sincere. Kaptan retorted: “So I’m not sincere, but those who make Parliament members out of TESEV members and Soros supporters are sincere!”

It was another swipe at Kılıçdaroğlu, who is among the founders of the Turkish Economic and Social Studies Foundation (TESEV), which is supported by George Soros, the controversial chairman of the Open Society Foundation who is often viewed with suspicion in Turkey.

Other deputies shouted at Kaptan for “insulting the party leader,” forcing him to leave the meeting.
In another challenge, Deputy İsa Gök submitted a proposal to convene a congress on amending the party’s internal regulations, saying Kılıçdaroğlu had promised to make the CHP more democratic. The proposal, however, was rejected with a 53-18 vote.