page_title: Republican People's Party (Turkey)
section_title: Current position
hierarchical_section_title: Republican People's Party (Turkey) / Current position
caption_attribution_description: English: The Republican People's Party (Turkish: Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi) building in Ankara. Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски: Zgrada Republikanske narodne partije (turski: Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi) u Ankari
context_page_description: The Republican People's Party is a social-democratic, Kemalist political party in Turkey. It is the oldest political party in the country, and is currently the main opposition in the Grand National Assembly. The CHP describes itself as "a modern social democratic party, which is faithful to the founding principles and values of the Republic of Turkey". The party is cited as "the founding party of modern Turkey". Its logo consists of the Six Arrows, which represent the foundational principles of Kemalism: republicanism, nationalism, statism, populism, laicism, and reformism.
  The political party was established during the Sivas Congress in 1919 as a union of resistance groups against the Greek invasion of Anatolia. The union represented Turkish people as a unified front during the Turkish War of Independence. On 9 September 1923, the "People's Party" declared itself to be a political organization and on 29 October 1923, announced the establishment of the Turkish Republic. On 10 November 1924, the People's Party renamed itself the "Republican People's Party" as Turkey moved into a one-party period.
context_section_description: The Republican People's Party is a centre-left political party with traditional ties to the middle and upper-middle classes such as white-collar workers, retired generals, government bureaucrats, academics, college students, left-leaning intellectuals and labour unions such as DİSK. The distance between the party administration and many leftist grassroots, especially left oriented Kurdish voters, contributed to the party's shift away from the political left.
  The party holds a significant position in the Socialist International, Progressive Alliance and is an associate member of the Party of European Socialists. In 2014 the CHP urged the Socialist International to accept the Republican Turkish Party of Northern Cyprus as an full member.
  At the 2007 general election, CHP ran in alliance with the Democratic Left Party. The CHP suffered a heavy defeat, getting 7,300,234 votes (20.85% of the total). The CHP, DSP, and YTP combined received 21.77% of the votes in the 2002. The party finished first only in the three Thracian provinces of Edirne, Tekirdağ, Kırklareli, as well as two provinces on the Aegean coast, which were İzmir and Muğla. With these results, 112 candidates (13 being DSP candidates) were elected to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey from the CHP electoral sheet, compared to 178 in 2002.
  The CHP increased its vote share from 20.9% to 23.1% in the 2009 local elections. The party gained considerable ground by winning over Antalya, Giresun, Zonguldak, Sinop, Tekirdağ, and Aydın, despite losing Trabzon municipality. In 20 provinces of Turkey, the party received less than 3% of the votes.
  At the general elections held in June 2011, the CHP was able to increase its number and percentage of voters to 11,155,972 and 25.98% respectively. At the 2014 local elections, the CHP's total votes went down to 10,835,876 yet it received 26.34% of the overall vote. CHP-backed candidate Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu was able to get only 38.44% of the votes during the presidential election five months later. In the June 2015 general elections where the ruling AKP lost its parliamentary majority for the first time, the party received 11,518,139 votes, or 24.95%. A coalition government was not formed and snap elections were held in November 2015, where the CHP received 12,111,812 votes, or 25.32%.
caption: Party headquarters in Ankara, showing a banner urging a "no" vote in the 2017 referendum on establishing a presidential system.
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