Republican People's Party

The political party has its origins in the various resistance groups founded during the Turkish War of Independence, with most members being previously associated with the Committee of Union and Progress. Under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, these groups united at the 1919 Sivas Congress. Founded as the 'People's Party' in 1923, the organisation adopted the prefix 'Republican' shortly after the proclamation of the Republic. Under Atatürk's first presidency, the party oversaw the establishment of the Turkish Republic. As Turkey moved into its authoritarian one-party period, the CHP became the primary apparatus for implementing far-reaching political, cultural, social, and economic reforms across the country.

After World War II, Atatürk's successor, İsmet İnönü, allowed for multi-party elections, and the party initiated a peaceful transition of power after losing the 1950 election, ending the one-party period and beginning Turkey's multi-party period. The years following the 1960 military coup saw the party gradually trend towards the center-left, which was cemented once Bülent Ecevit became chairman in 1972. The CHP, along with all other political parties of the time, was banned by the military junta of 1980. The CHP was re-established with its original name by Deniz Baykal on 9 September 1992, with the participation of a majority of its members from the pre-1980 period. From 2002 to 2026 it was the main opposition party to the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). In May 2026, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu was re-appointed as chairman via a controversial court order, invalidating the previous party congress that resulted in Özgür Özel becoming chairman. After accusing the Kılıçdaroğlu party administration of turning the CHP into controlled opposition, Özel founded the New Party, to which a majority of CHP MPs defected. The New Party became the largest opposition party in Turkey following these defections.

CHP is an associate member of the Party of European Socialists (PES), a member of the Socialist International, and the Progressive Alliance. Many politicians of CHP have declared their support for LGBT rights and the feminist movement in Turkey. The party is pro-European and supports Turkish membership to European Union and NATO. The party also fully supports the enlargement of the European Union and NATO.

History

Establishment: 1919–1923

The Republican People's Party has its origins in the resistance organizations, known as Defence of Rights Associations, created in the immediate aftermath of World War I in the Turkish War of Independence. In the Sivas Congress, Mustafa Kemal Pasha (Atatürk) and his colleagues united the Defence of Rights Associations into the Association for the Defence of National Rights of Anatolia and Rumelia (Anadolu ve Rumeli Müdâfaa-i Hukuk Cemiyeti) (A–RMHC), and called for elections in the Ottoman Empire to elect representatives associated with the organization. The CHP, which regards itself the successor to the A–RMHC, considers the Sivas Congress its inaugural party congress. Most members of the A–RMHC were previously Young Turks associated with the Committee of Union and Progress, and veterans of the tumultuous politics of the Second Constitutional Era.

After the forced dissolution of the Chamber of Deputies, A–RMHC members proclaimed the Grand National Assembly as a counter government from Istanbul, which was appeasing the Allied powers. After Grand National Assembly forces militarily defeated Greece, France, and Armenia, they overthrew the Ottoman government and abolished the monarchy. After the 1923 election, the A–RMHC was transformed into a political party called the People's Party (Halk Fırkası) soon changing its name to Republican People's Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Fırkası, and then Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi) (CHP). With a united parliament, the republic was proclaimed with Atatürk as its first president, the Treaty of Lausanne was ratified, and the Caliphate was abolished the next year.

One-party period: 1923–1950

Atatürk era

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's People's Party began as a de facto successor of the Young Turks and the CUP. In 1924, a right-wing opposition to Atatürk led by Kâzım Karabekir, reacting against the abolition of the Caliphate, formed the Progressive Republican Party. The life of the opposition party was short. The Progressive Republican Party faced allegations of involvement in the Sheikh Said rebellion, overthrow the regime, and for conspiring with remaining members of the CUP to assassinate Atatürk in the İzmir Affair. Martial law was declared, all political parties except the CHP were banned, all newspapers beyond state approved papers were banned (this ban would be lifted by 1930), and Karabekir's supporters were purged from the government. Republican Turkey was the third one-party state of Interwar Europe, after the Soviet Union and Fascist Italy. For the next two decades Turkey was under a paternalist one-party authoritarian dictatorship, with one interruption; another brief experiment of opposition politics through the formation of the Liberal Republican Party.

From 1924 to 1946, the CHP introduced sweeping social, cultural, educational, economic, and legal reforms that transformed Turkey into a republican nation state. Such reforms included the adoption of Swiss and Italian legal and penal codes, the acceleration of industrialization, land reform and rural development programs, nationalization of foreign assets, forced assimilation policies, strict secularism, women's suffrage, and switching written Turkish from Perso-Arabic script into Latin script, to name a few. In the party's second congress in 1927 (the first since the Sivas Congress), Atatürk delivered a thirty-six hour long speech (known as Nutuk, or "The Speech") of his account of the pivotal last eight years of Turkish history, which ended with an appeal to the Turkish youth to protect the Republic. Its narrative has served as the basis of a growing cult of personality associated with Atatürk and the historiography of the transition to the Republic from the Sultanate. In the period of 1930–1939, Atatürk's CHP clarified its ideology with 'The Six Arrows': republicanism, reformism, laïcité (secularism), populism, nationalism, and statism. They defined Atatürk's principles, which were soon known as Kemalism, and were codified into the constitution on 5 February 1937.

With the Ottomanism question settled, Turkish nation-building was prioritized which saw nationalist propaganda, language purification, and pseudo-scientific racial theories propagated. Opposition to Atatürk's reforms were suppressed by various coercive institutions and military force, at the expense of religious conservatives, minorities, and communists. The party-state cracked down on Kurdish resistance to assimilation, suppressing multiple rebellions and encouraging the denial of their existence. Anti-clerical and anti-veiling campaigns peaked in the mid-1930s. In the party's third convention, it clarified its approach towards the religious minorities of the Christians and the Jews, accepting them as real Turks as long as they adhere to the national ideal and use the Turkish language. However under the state sanctioned secularist climate Alevis were able to make great strides in their emancipation, and to this day make up a core constituency of the CHP. With the onset of the Great Depression, the party divided into statist and liberal factions, being championed by Atatürk's long-time prime minister İsmet İnönü and his finance minister Celâl Bayar respectively. Atatürk mostly favoured İnönü's policies, so economic development of the early republic was largely confined to state-owned enterprises and five-year plans. However near the end of Atatürk's presidency Bayar was appointed Prime Minister after İnönü fell from favor. Further left-wing Republicans centered around the Kadro circle were deemed to be impermissible, so they were closed down.

İnönü era

On 12 November 1938, the day after Atatürk's death, his ally İsmet İnönü was elected the second president and assumed leadership of the Republican People's Party. İnönü's presidency saw heavy state involvement in the economy and further rural development initiatives such as Village Institutes. On foreign affairs, the Hatay State was annexed and İnönü adopted a policy of neutrality despite attempts by the Allies and Axis powers to bring Turkey into World War II, during which extensive conscription and rationing was implemented to ensure an armed neutrality. Non-Muslims especially suffered when the CHP government implemented discriminatory "wealth taxes," labor battalions, and peon camps. Over the course of the war, the CHP eventually rejected ultranationalism, with pan-Turkists being purged in the Racism-Turanism Trials.

In the aftermath of World War II, İnönü presided over the democratization of Turkey. With the crisis of war over, factionalism between the liberals and statists again broke out. The Motion with Four Signatures resulted in the resignation of CHP members, most prominently Bayar, who then founded the Democrat Party (DP). İnönü called for a multi-party general election in 1946 – the first multi-party general election in the country's history, in a contest between the DP and CHP. The result was a victory for the CHP, which won 395 of the 465 seats, amid criticism that the election did not live up to democratic standards. Under pressure by the new conservative parliamentary opposition and the United States, the party became especially anti-communist, and retracted some of its rural development programs and anti-clerical policies. The period between 1946 and 1950 saw İnönü prepare for a pluralistic Turkey allied with the West. A more free and fair general election was held in 1950 that led to the CHP losing power to the DP. İnönü presided over a peaceful transition of power. The 1950 election marked the end of the CHP's last majority government. The party has not been able to regain a parliamentary majority in any subsequent election since.

İnönü's continued chairmanship: 1950–1972

Opposition to the DP

Due to the winner-take-all system in place during the 1950s, the center-right DP achieved landslide victories in elections that were reasonably close, meaning the CHP was in opposition for 10 years. In the meantime, the CHP began a long transformation into a social democratic force. Even before losing power İnönü created the Ministry of Labour and signed workers protections into law, and universities were given autonomy from the state. In its ninth congress in 1951, the youth branch and the women's branch were founded. In 1953, the establishment of trade unions and vocational chambers was proposed, and support for a bicameral parliament, the establishment of a constitutional court, election security, judicial independence, and the right to strike for workers was added to the party program.

Though the DP and CHP were rivals, the DP was founded by conservative Republicans who mostly continued Kemalist policies. But despite its name, the Democrat Party became increasingly authoritarian by the end of its rule. İnönü was harassed and almost lynched multiple times by DP supporters across Turkey, and the DP government confiscated CHP property, shut down newspapers supporting CHP, and harassed their members. The DP blocked the CHP from forming an electoral alliance with opposition parties for the 1957 snap election. By 1960, the DP accused the CHP of plotting a rebellion and threatened its closure. With the army concerned by the DP's authoritarianism, Turkey's first military coup was performed by junior officers. After one year of junta rule the DP was banned and Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and two of his ministers were tried and executed, though president Celâl Bayar spared due to his old age and ailing health. Right-wing parties which trace their roots to the DP have since continuously attacked the CHP for their perceived involvement in the hanging of Menderes.

1960s

The CHP emerged as the first-placed party at the general election of 1961 and formed a grand coalition with the Justice Party, a successor-party to the Democrat Party. This was the first coalition government in Turkey, which endured for seven-months. İnönü was able to form two more governments with other parties until the 1965 election. His labour minister Bülent Ecevit was instrumental in giving Turkish workers the right to strike and collective bargaining. As leader of the Democratic Left faction in the CHP, Ecevit contributed to the party adopting the Left of Centre (Ortanın solu) program for that election, which they lost against the Justice Party.

İnönü favoured Ecevit's controversial faction, resulting in Turhan Feyzioğlu leaving the CHP and founding the Reliance Party. When asked about his reasoning for his favouring Ecevit, İnönü replied: "Actually we are already a left-to-center party after embracing Laïcité. If you are populist, you are [also] at the left of center." With Feyzioğlu's departure, the CHP participated in the 1969 election with a Democratic Left program without qualms, though it achieved a similar result as its performance from last election due to the growing perception that the party primarily appealed to the educated urban elite. İnönü remained as opposition leader and the leader of the CHP until 8 May 1972, when he was overthrown by Ecevit in a party congress, due to his endorsement of the military intervention of 1971.

Bülent Ecevit: 1972–1980

As chairman, Bülent Ecevit adopted a distinct left wing role in politics and, although remaining staunchly nationalist, implemented democratic socialism into the ideology of CHP. His arrival saw support for the party increase in the 1973 election. After establishing a coalition arrangement with an Islamist party, Ecevit made the decision to invade Cyprus in an atmosphere of deteriorating order on the island that threatened the safety of Turkish Cypriots. The 1970s saw the party solidify its relations with trade unions and leftist groups in an atmosphere of intense polarization and political violence. The CHP achieved its best ever result in a free and fair multi-party election under Ecevit, when in 1977, the party received 41% of the vote, but not enough support for a majority government. Although Ecevit was able to form a government due to some MPs defecting from the Justice Party, the resulting Ecevit government was not stable either. Ecevit and his political rival Süleyman Demirel would constantly turnover the premiership as partisan deadlock took hold. This, combined with the chaos and political violence in Turkey, eventually ended in a military coup in 1980, resulting in the banning of every political party, political association, labour union, and major politicians being jailed and banned from politics.

Recovery period: 1980–2002

Both the party name "Republican People's Party" and the abbreviation "CHP" were banned until 1987. After democracy was restored, until 1999 Turkey was ruled by the centre-right Motherland Party (ANAP) and the True Path Party (DYP), unofficial successors of the Democrat Party and the Justice Party, as well as, briefly, by the Islamist Welfare Party. CHP supporters also established successor parties. By 1985, Erdal İnönü, İsmet İnönü's son, consolidated two successor parties to form the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP), while the Democratic Left Party (Turkish: Demokratik Sol Parti, DSP) was formed by Rahşan Ecevit, Bülent Ecevit's wife (Bülent later took over the DSP in 1987).

After the ban on pre-1980 politicians was lifted in 1987, Deniz Baykal, a household name from the pre-1980 CHP, reestablished the Republican People's Party in 1992, and the SHP merged with the party in 1995, though Ecevit's DSP rejected merger. Observers noted that the two parties held similar ideologies and split the Kemalist vote in the nineties. The CHP held an uncompromisingly secularist and establishmentalist character and supported bans of headscarves in public spaces.

From 1991 to 1996, the SHP and then the CHP were in coalition governments with the DYP. Baykal supported Mesut Yılmaz's coalition government after the collapse of the Welfare-DYP coalition following the 28 February "post-modern coup." However, due to the Türkbank scandal, the CHP withdrew its support and helped depose the government with a no confidence vote. Ecevit's DSP formed an interim-government, during which the PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan was captured in Kenya. As such, in the election of 1999, the DSP benefited massively in the polls at the expense of CHP, and the party failed to exceed the 10% threshold (8.7% vote), not winning any seats.

Main opposition under Baykal: 2002–2010

In the 2002 general election, the CHP came back with 20% of the vote but 32% of the seats in parliament, as only it and the new AK Party (Justice and Development Party) received above the 10% threshold to enter parliament. With DSP's collapse, CHP became Turkey's main Kemalist party. It also became the second largest party and the main opposition party, a position it has retained since. Since the dramatic 2002 election, the CHP has been racked by internal power struggles, and has been outclassed by the AKP governments of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Many of its members were critical of the leadership of CHP, especially Baykal, who they complained was stifling the party of young blood by turning away the young who turn either to apathy or even vote for the AKP. Baykal proclaimed the party to be the secularist establishment's bulwark as he pivoted the party away from the center-left towards the center.

In 2007, the culmination of tensions between Turkey's secularist establishment and AKP politicians turned into a political crisis. The CHP assisted undemocratic attempts by the army and judiciary to shut down the newly elected AKP. The crisis began with massive protests by secularists supported by the CHP in reaction to the AKP's candidate for that year's presidential election: Abdullah Gül, due to his background in Islamist politics and his wife's wearing of the hijab. The CHP's campaign focused on the alleged İrtica (Islamic reaction) that the AKP victory would bring into government, which served to alienate liberals and democrats from the party. The CHP chose to boycott the (indirect) election. Without quorum, Erdoğan called for a snap election to increase his mandate, in which the CHP formed an electoral alliance with the declining DSP, but gained only 21% of the vote. During the campaign season, a memorandum directed at the AKP was posted online by the Turkish Armed Forces. The CHP boycotted Gül's second attempt to be voted president, though this time Gül had the necessary quorum with MHP's participation and won. The swearing-in ceremony was boycotted by the CHP and the Chief of the General Staff Yaşar Büyükanıt.

The party also voted against a package of constitutional amendments to have the president elected by the people instead of parliament, which was eventually put to a referendum. The "no" campaign, supported by the CHP, failed, as a majority of Turks voted in favor of direct presidential elections. The final challenge against the AKP's existence was a 2008 closure trial which ended without a ban. Following the decision, the AKP government, in a covert alliance with the Gülen movement, began a purge of the Turkish military, judiciary, and police forces of secularists in the Ergenekon and Sledgehammer trials, which the CHP condemned.

Between 2002 and 2010, Turkey held three general elections and two local elections, all of which the CHP received between 18 and 23% of the vote.

In the lead up to the US-lead coalition invasion of Iraq, AKP leadership failed to come to a consensus whether to participate. By a thin margin, parliament vetoed invading Iraq, due to half of the AKP's parliamentary group voting with the CHP against war. CHP leadership briefly held a soft Euroscepticism as the AKP government came close to an ascension plan with the European Union.

Main opposition under Kılıçdaroğlu: 2010–2023

On 10 May 2010, Deniz Baykal announced his resignation as leader of the Republican People's Party after a sex tape of him was leaked to the media. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu was elected to be the new party leader. Kılıçdaroğlu returned the CHP to its traditional social-democratic image and cast away its secularist-establishmentalist character. This involved building bridges to voters it has traditionally not attracted: the devout, Kurds, and right-wing voters. However even with Kılıçdaroğlu at the helm, after five general elections, the CHP still did not win an election, receiving between only 22 and 26% of the vote in parliamentary elections. The CHP supported the unsuccessful "no" campaign in the 2010 constitutional referendum. In his first general election in 2011, the party increased its support by 25% but not enough to unseat the AKP. The 2013 Gezi Park protests found much support in the CHP.

The 2014 presidential election was the first in which the position would be directly elected and came just after a massive corruption scandal. The CHP and MHP's joint candidate Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu still lost to Erdoğan with only 38% of the vote. The two parties were critical of the government's negotiations for peace with the PKK, which lasted from 2013–July 2015. In the June 2015 general election, the AKP lost its parliamentary majority due to the debut of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), which was possible because of strategic voting by CHP voters so the party could pass the 10% threshold. Coalition talks went nowhere. MHP ruled out partaking in a government with HDP in a CHP lead government and the CHP refused to govern with the AKP after weeks of negotiations. In a snap election held that November, the AKP regained their parliamentary majority as well as MHP's support.

Kılıçdaroğlu supported the government in the 2016 coup d'état attempt, the subsequent purges, and incursions into Syria. This support went so far as to help the government pass a law to lift parliamentary immunities, resulting in the jailing of MPs from the HDP, including Selahattin Demirtaş, as well as CHP lawmakers. The party lead the unsuccessful "no" campaign for the 2017 constitutional referendum.

By 2017, dissidents from MHP founded the Good Party. Kılıçdaroğlu was instrumental in the facilitating the rise of the new party by transferring MPs so they would have a parliamentary group to compete in the 2018 election. In the 2018 general election the CHP, Good Party, Felicity, and Democrat Party established the Nation Alliance to challenge the AKP and MHP's People's Alliance. Though CHP's vote was reduced to 22%, strategic voting for the other parties yielded the alliance 33% of the vote. Their candidate for president: Muharrem İnce, lost in the first round, receiving only 30% of the vote. The Nation Alliance was re-established for the 2019 local elections, which saw great gains for the CHP, capturing nearly 30% of the electorate. A tacit collaboration with the HDP allowed for CHP to win the municipal mayoralties of İstanbul and Ankara.

Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu was nominated as the CHP and the Nation Alliance candidate for the 2023 presidential election. Ekrem İmamoğlu and Mansur Yavaş, mayors of İstanbul and Ankara respectively, along with other party leaders in Nation Alliance, ran to be his vice-presidents. Despite the government's lackluster response to the economic crisis, COVID-19 pandemic, and the Kahramanmaraş earthquake, Kılıçdaroğlu lost his bid to Erdoğan after taking the race to a run-off and receiving 48% of the vote. The Nation Alliance again lost the parliamentary election to the ruling People's Alliance. Smaller parties to the CHP's right ran on its lists, which resulted in them receiving 35 seats in parliament for minimal electoral gains. At the 38th ordinary party congress held shortly after the election, Özgür Özel was elected leader of the CHP, defeating the incumbent Kılıçdaroğlu who had held the position since 2010.

Main opposition under Özel: 2023–26

The party won a major victory in the 2024 local elections. CHP mayors were reelected in Istanbul and Ankara, along with new victories in rural Aegean and Central Anatolian provinces. Since 1977, this was the first time the CHP won the popular vote winning 37.8% of the electorate, and was the AKP's first nation-wide defeat.

Ekrem İmamoğlu, the CHP mayor of Istanbul, was detained and later arrested by police in March 2025, along with over 100 other individuals. Major protests occurred immediately following the arrests across the country, with CHP officials backing the protesters. The party's primary election to choose its nominee for president in 2028 took place on 23 March, the day of İmamoğlu's arrest, which he won in a landslide.

Absolute nullity crisis

On 21 May 2026, the Ankara Regional Court invalidated the 38th Ordinary and 21st Extraordinary Party Conventions, which resulted in the dismissal of Özel and the reinstatement of the former leader Kılıçdaroğlu. One day before the decision, Kılıçdaroğlu called for "purging" without referencing the ongoing court case. After the decision was announced, the BIST 100 index fell by 6% before recovering the next day. Two days later, Özel was re-elected as parliamentary group leader by 95 out of 96 votes. In his group speech, Özel announced that he does not accept the court decision and called for a renewed convention. The next day, Kılıçdaroğlu requested law enforcement to help him take over the CHP headquarters from intra-party opposition.

The decision of the court was argued to be a judicial coup by Özel and his supporters, as this marked the first time in Turkish history that "a party leadership elected by delegates was overturned by a court ruling." The mayor of Ankara, Mansur Yavaş, argued the aim of the coup was to 'divide Turkey's biggest opposition party and render it ineffective.' Analysts have argued that this decision could cripple the CHP against the AK Party and trigger a snap election as early as autumn. Human Rights Watch (HRW) described the ruling as "the latest deeply damaging blow to the rule of law, democracy, and human rights" in Turkey. In July 2026, Özel and 90 other MPs announced the formation of the New Party, formally splitting from the CHP.