CHP alliance deadlock obstacle to unite opposition bloc

As the meetings for election cooperation between political parties continue in full swing, the Republican People's Party (CHP) is yet to resolve its alliance deadlock. After the April 16 referendum last year, CHP Chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu promised to unite the opposition bloc, but in a months-long search of partners, the CHP continues to hold inconsequential meetings.

Currently, the CHP has made meetings with the Good Party (İYİ Party), the Motherland Party (ANAP) and the Democrat Party (DP). After the meetings, both parties made ambiguous statements that based on the Turkey's democratic status quo and election safety.

Touching upon the CHP's insoluble moves to unite a broad bloc, Tanju Tosun, an academic from Ege University, told Daily Sabah that the CHP's strategy for uniting their opposition wing is wrong.

"The main reason why the CHP is not resulting positive meetings is that because there is no ideological homogeneity in the 48 percent bloc," he said. Tosun underlined that the alliance establishing process is difficult because there is no deeper rooted fundamental sociological political unity among the 48 percent.

The CHP's infertile politics has been disturbing the voters as well as the party members and deputies. Recently, the CHP already went through intra-party conflicts that may contribute to the insoluble alliance talks. Reportedly a group of deputies in the CHP refused to form an election alliance. While the cross talks of the parties are enhancing, the CHP stays recessive to make a strong move to compound the promised 48 percent bloc.

Tosun added that the unity of the 48 percent bloc depends on the opposition of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, therefore it is not possible to easily establish a unity over it because the group has plural voices based on internal politics or views on the Syrian issue, even though they consider the Erdoğan opposition, some of them adopt some approaches of the president. He said the differences based on socio-cultural divisions extending to about 50 years make it hard to associate a homogeneous group that will be going over 50 percent.

The contrasting opinions about the CHP's future moves are increasing, while putting the party in a hard position to fulfill the demands. The CHP's formula for their bloc remains uncovered. CHP Chairman Kılıçdaroğlu is expecting to meet İYİ Party Chairwoman Meral Akşener today. Despite the meeting, Akşener already made clear of her candidacy, yet no positive outcome is expected.

Despite the views of Tosun's arguments about the CHP's inability to form a bloc, Yunus Emre, an academic from İstanbul Kültür University and a CHP Party Assembly member underlined that the CHP will manage to form an alliance that can gather even more people than the ruling party's alliance.

Emre underlined that the opposition will establish a more effective alliance platform, because they have a common goal of "strengthening democracy in Turkey."

He addressed that this group is a broad unity that meets around the common demands. "The views of the opposition call for a much broader cut. If you think overall, it is the opinion of the opposition that speaking on behalf of the average of Turkey," Emre said.

He also remarked that the process of alliance talks has not formally started yet, and when the meetings begin, the process will continue transparently.

"This is the process of determining the common principles, the process of being more crystallized and matured with […] The views of this platform attract more attention in the political debate in Turkey," Emre added.