Despite Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) holding a convention this January, intraparty opposition members are voicing their opinion against party chairman Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's leadership and his policies. Daily Sabah spoke with Şahin Mengü, a former CHP deputy, who is known for his opposition to Kılıçdaroğlu administration, about how the CHP can be successful in the future and become the ruling party.Mengü claimed that the former CHP Chairman Deniz Baykal's resignation in 2010, due to a sex tape scandal, was a plot by Europe and the U.S. Mengü said that Kılıçdaroğlu, who he claims knows it was a plot against Baykal, should resign his post and give it back to Baykal, while adding that the "New CHP" rhetoric is not as progressive as it is claimed, but retrogressive. Mengü also said that the CHP would be able to secure government, if they return to their populist and reformist roots, along with having concrete economic policies.DS: The intraparty opposition have called for a congress in the CHP, even though they held one in January. What is your assessment of the situation?The main reason for that dispute is the CHP's mismanagement of the crisis and as a result, the party is damaged. Even if they are right about some issues, CHP Chairman Kılıçdaroğlu's hesitant attitudes spread disbelief among society. Unfortunately, when disbelief spreads toward the administration, the desire for reconstruction arouses in political parties. This is what is happening in the CHP right now.Until quite recently, Kılıçdaroğlu and his allies said, "We are not the same party of the 1930's," and "Atatürk and his friends slaughtered many in Dersim," and now he and his allies are embracing Kemalism. Not surprisingly, that attitude creates disbelief among party alignments, which results in calling for a congress. It is certain that the political winds of change in the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) are going to affect everyone. In my view, not only Turkey, but also the Balkans and Greece are going to be affected by that political trend. Unfortunately, in Mediterranean countries, political incidents tend to follow each other like a domino. For example; the Arab Spring. It spread like wildfire, and it affected all of the Arab world. Being a politician living in Turkey, and also being a developing figure in one of the political parties, I believe that such political winds of change are going to affect other political parties and other regions.DS: What kind of path would the intraparty opposition follow?Of course, the chairman of the CHP should leave office. He failed, it is a fact. From now on, he should accept his failure. The chair of the CHP is unsuccessful, he failed in every election and his performance was unsatisfactory during the crisis period. He should resign. Otherwise, the party would be driven into a congress due to the strong opposition that stems from party alignments as it could worsen the situation. Moreover, the party could become the target of public discussions. Therefore, Kılıçdaroğlu should accept his failure and resign. However, I don't believe that he does have that kind of personality. He never left his office of his own consent.

DS: You said, "The CHP administration's performance was unsatisfactory during the crisis period," can you explain it?The CHP's contradictory attitude about the proposal to lift parliamentary immunity is the obvious one. Definitely, parliamentary immunity should be lifted, it shouldn't interfere with real and righteous politics. However, parliamentary immunity cannot be used as a shield in order to commit vile crimes and to support terrorist organizations, yet the proposal to lift parliamentary immunity should have been implemented in accordance with the constitution and Congress by law.You would say the method of lifting parliamentary immunity is unconstitutional, and I would say "yes." Then deputies from the CHP would be blamed for coordinating with the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) because they have voted "no" in the constitutional amendment, which is a strong indicator of the CHP's poor performance during the crisis period.DS: In recent days, Kılıçdaroğlu has not shown up at court to testify over the sex tape scandal that resulted in Baykal's resignation in 2010. After this, you have said, "cowards die many times before their deaths." What made you say this?All the people of Turkey are saying that this sex tape scandal was a plot against Baykal, even Kılıçdaroğlu himself admitted it. If he is admitting that this is a plot, this means that Baykal left his post as a victim. There is only one course of action: Kılıçdaroğlu should return the post to Baykal. I don't know if Baykal would accept or reject it, but Kılıçdaroğlu should at least offer this chance, as Baykal is the victim.Kılıçdaroğlu clearly states that this is a plot against Baykal and that two CHP deputies are responsible for this. If he knows this much, he should not avoid bearing testimony to the court. That's what I meant. Even if Kılıçdaroğlu tries to avoid this testimony for the whole of his life, one day everything will be revealed.DS: As you know, we learned that the Gülenists were the responsible party for all the wiretapping in recent years. Do you believe that the Gülenist plotted against Baykal?It would be wrong to only accuse one group for what happened. There might be other forces at play, maybe foreign. However, it is obvious that their intentions are definitely not pure, as they are trying to redesign the CHP and Turkey.After the sex tape scandal, with the new administration, the CHP has been diverted from its neo-nationalist identity. The CHP brought the ethnic political ideology into play in Turkey, as the West wanted it to happen. In this regard, it is an plot against the CHP and Turkey, and anyone can be the perpetrator, Gülenists included. It has to be evaluated and a verdict should be reached by the court.DS: The CHP has always been defined as a Kemalist and neo-nationalist party. In your opinion, what has changed during Kılıçdaroğlu's six years in leadership?As you have said, the CHP is a Kemalist, neo-nationalist mass party with populist and reformist notions, which positions the party on the left-wing of politics. However, with Kılıçdaroğlu's administration, it has turned into an ethnic politics party. If you are stating that the word Turk can be removed from the constitution, it is contradictory with what the party stands for. In our ideology, Turk stands for all the people living within this region; therefore, it is not an ethnic or racist term.DS: Some criticize the CHP saying it no longer represents the whole of Turkey as it has become mainly an Alevi party, when its delegates and deputies are considered. Do you agree with this?I do not know how many of the deputies or district chairs are Alevi. However, if there is such a segregation or discrimination, this is dangerous, especially if some people are chosen deputies only because they are Sunni or Alevi. As I have said, I do not possess firsthand knowledge regarding this issue and if I already knew, I would not hesitate to criticize it. Yet, I am hearing this more frequently. Causing such a rumor is as bad as actualizing it.DS: In recent years, we have seen that people defining them as nationalist or neo-nationalist, including you, are not given the chance to become a part of the CHP. What is your take on this subject?In October 2008, the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies at Johns Hopkins University, which is a joint effort between the U.S. and Sweden, wrote in their report about the CHP that Baykal could be persuaded to resign and Kılıçdaroğlu would take his place. In the report, it is said that the CHP would become a European-style centrist social democratic party with the leadership of Kılıçdaroğlu. The overlap between the renewal of the CHP as mentioned in the report of 2008 and Kılıçdaroğlu's "new CHP" motto is quite intriguing, isn't it?Moreover, in the leaked cryptos from Condoleezza Rice, who was the Secretary of State until 2009, it can be seen that she was gathering information about Kılıçdaroğlu, one year before the sex tape scandal.You may ask why I didn't say anything about this subject, if I knew this much. I can assure you that we learned about this report a long time after the scandal. Everybody had underestimated this report. However, this shows that we were wrong to do so. When you consider all of these, it is clear that this was a plot.DS: Who are the perpetrators? Is it the U.S., as you have just mentioned the name of their former Secretary of State?Yes, I did. I believe the perpetrators maybe the U.S. or Europe. However, as I am not an intelligence officer, it is hard to say for sure.Still, when you look at the said crypto, it can be clearly seen that they wanted to eliminate the neo-nationalist wing of the CHP. This is not new. The West has always been disturbed with the CHP's neo-nationalist notions. They always support and protect their neo-nationalist parties within their countries; however, when the CHP is the case, we are demonized.DS: While it has been announced as the renewal of the CHP, there aren't any clear definitions or descriptions about what is new. What are your opinions about the new CHP?Like most of the people, I cannot envision what the new CHP would be. I believe it is not renewal, it is retrogression. If the CHP chair is advising the whole party organization not to even mention secularism, in order to appear sympathetic towards conservative voters, this is retrogression. Saying that the word "Turk" should not be included in the constitution is, in my opinion, a racist and retrogressive action.One of the six essential principles of the CHP is being reformist; however, this is not like a Marxist revolution, but more about being progressive. Being progressive means catching up with the modern world. We do not need to be social democrats in order to be progressive. Reformism and populism, which are two of the CHP's essential principles, already require you to be progressive. Due to its populist notion, the CHP is a strong leftist mass party. However, if you say that you want to implement the republicanism of the 1920s today, you cannot integrate with the rest of the world, as we are living in a huge village in which everyone is related to one another. Therefore, we do not need a new CHP, we need a CHP that returns to its roots.In the previous few days, for the first time, I watched Kılıçdaroğlu with both happiness and surprise, as he was chanting "We are the troops of Mustafa Kemal" and marching at the same time. While we can argue that if chanting can only be considered Kemalist, I was happy, nevertheless. I believe it is going for the better, after his statements such as "I am from Dersim" and "We are not the 1930s CHP." At least, it was seen that what they advocated as being progressive, was actually being regressive.DS: Isn't there a dilemma when you say that the CHP should return to its roots? I mean, the CHP has not been elected since the beginning of the multiparty system in 1950. Will returning to its roots suffice for the CHP?Yes, the CHP was not able to be the ruling party; however, it was due to the electoral system. The percentage of votes we had in 1973 is the same as Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AK Party) in 2002. Our percentage of votes in 1977 was the same with Erdoğan's 2007 percentage. The difference is, during that time there was not an electoral threshold such as today's 10 percent.Moreover, the Sept. 12, 1980 coup damaged the CHP the most. We were obliterated. In addition, the inclusion of Kurdish nationalists into the party caused indignation in the rural populace.Therefore, it seems that we are not able to reach the people as we did in 1973 and 1977, as we do not talk about the economic and social improvements to people's life. The people are the same; therefore, the fault lies with us as a party. Politicians should firstly seek the fault in themselves. If you do not do this, it is not possible to be successful in politics.DS: What should the CHP do in order to become the ruling party?The party should be able to convey its economic policies and explain these policies to the people, along with informing them how to use their basic rights and freedoms. Moreover, the party must say that they will be supportive of farmers and the industrial sector. They should also explain how to protect small- and medium-sized enterprises. They should also elaborate on how to implement a social market economy.In addition, you do not become a libertarian by just claiming it. Therefore, you have to explain that you will let everyone, regardless of their belief or view, to practice their rights to the extent the law grants.Repeating these as a motto will not help anyone, they should be implemented. For example, I believe that if we were able to fulfill our promises in 1973 and 1977, we could have been the ruling party and ruled Turkey for almost 20 or 25 years. However, we were unsuccessful at that time; and when you fail, the people are dissatisfied with you and they let you go. This is the beauty of democracy.DS: Recently, Kılıçdaroğlu said, "Anyone who coordinates with the HDP will be kicked out of the party," what is your assessment about it?It is meaningless to say that at this point, also this sentence is also meaningless in terms of judicial perspective. Of course he is going to defend himself. Many of the CHP deputies have summary of proceedings. The people who claim that the constitutional amendment is a violation of rights can gather the signatures from 110 deputies in order to bring the trial into constitutional court. There is nothing wrong with that.If you ask me, the CHP negotiated with the HDP in an epoch that the HDP wasn't keeping terror at bay and they weren't calling for disarmament, so they can gather together with the HDP again just like before. In my personal opinion, I won't coordinate with the HDP. However, self-defense is nature's eldest law. In this respect, CHP administration shouldn't prevent 110 deputies to bring the trial into constitutional court.Briefly, the CHP's deputies must not coordinate with the HDP's, but the party rule shouldn't prevent 110 deputies who have casted their votes as "no" to bring the trial into the constitutional court.