{"id":1498,"date":"2024-12-15T23:23:10","date_gmt":"2024-12-15T20:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.toplum.org.tr\/en\/?p=1498"},"modified":"2025-06-18T03:26:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-18T00:26:52","slug":"what-is-the-thing-the-chp-lacks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.toplum.org.tr\/en\/what-is-the-thing-the-chp-lacks\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is the \u201cThing\u201d the CHP Lacks?"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP) \u2014 which scored a sweeping victory in the last local elections, defeating the ruling party by historic margins in both the capital and the former capital \u2014 something is not going right. Although the things said to lie behind this malaise are varied, the set where they all overlap is the same: dirayet<\/strong>. Dirayet is a word that simultaneously denotes intelligence and skill. In everyday usage an additional shade of meaning, kudret<\/strong> \u2014 power or might \u2014 has attached itself to it. It is not a cunning devoid of intellect, nor an intellect bereft of practical ability, but the fusion of the two. What society perceives from this fusion is power. Throughout evolutionary history, dirayet has been the key to survival, to trust, and to the unity born of that trust. The absence of this key is precisely what still keeps the CHP from being the natural choice for the crowds who once managed to carry the party, with its roof, its walls, and its doorway, into government.<\/p>\n

For Turks, whose satisfaction with the mystical presentation of their pragmatism spans the ages, the very first national inscription carved in stone proclaims that the ruler, endowed with kut<\/strong> \u2014 the heavenly mandate to govern \u2014 owes his people one overriding duty: \u201cto feed the hungry and clothe the naked.\u201d What happens when he falters in that primary duty? When he cannot manage, when he cannot cope, when he does not appear resolute? Then the people conclude that God has withdrawn the mandate of rule from that leader. They want to install someone else, and if they want it strongly enough, they do so. For the desire to grow strong enough, there must be a more dirayetli<\/strong> alternative. The rationality of this system is impossible to miss. In my view, one of the most admirable national traits of the Turks is precisely this inclination toward pragmatic choice. The late S\u00fcleyman Demirel\u2019s observation that \u201cthere is no government the cooking pot cannot topple\u201d is nothing but an expression of this very reality.<\/p>\n

I would like to remind those shouting, \u201cSo why does the government not change even in this time of economic hardship?\u201d that I have already given the answer above: for change to be desired strongly enough, a suitable alternative has to be present.<\/p>\n

I do not agree with statements such as \u201cIn fact, the CHP\u2019s leader is not its current chair.\u201d Whoever sits on the horse is regarded by society as the rider, and in that sense Mr \u00d6zg\u00fcr \u00d6zel is the one on the horse. Mr \u00d6zel is known for the politeness, grace, and warmth he shows in personal relations. These, of course, are the ABCs of being a \u201cgood person,\u201d and I also believe his term as group deputy chair was successful. Yet it is no secret that he has gone through a spell of horsemanship in which both the horse and the arena find him ill-at-ease. Day by day he reinforces the image of an irrepressible young rascal. He cannot stick to the script; almost every off-script remark drags the CHP into debates where it is not a party. His curious, high-pitched declarations while the government\u2019s own sentences announcing a new \u201copening\u201d were still hot off the press are further examples. So too was his call on the government to \u201ctalk with Assad\u201d at a moment when Assad looked about to fall. In truth, he may have fallen victim to the guidance of his deputy \u0130lhan Uzgel on the Syria issue, for Mr Uzgel also managed to hand the government yet another video to show on the campaign trail with his line, \u201cDid we have to take Aleppo just because Assad wouldn\u2019t meet?\u201d Throughout history it has been rare for \u201cgood\u201d academics to make good politicians; in our country it is almost unheard of. The choice to place Professor \u0130lhan in what may be the single most important post after the party chair\u2014in a position where the public expects to see dirayet\u2014can be taken as proof that the CHP lacks even the faintest institutional notion of this very \u201cdirayet\u201d.<\/p>\n

You can think of dirayet<\/span><\/i><\/strong> <\/i><\/b>as the keystone in a bridge arch\u2014the single, crucial stone that locks the rest into place, letting every block draw strength from the others and stand firm. No matter how fine the stones or how perfect the mortar, without that indispensable keystone the structure will not hold. The indispensable keystone the people look for in those who govern them is dirayet. It is so essential that, if it is missing, even if you outshine your rival in the remaining ninety-nine items on the checklist, you still will not gain true ascendancy. Is that unfair? Perhaps. But redefining reality does not change it.<\/p>\n

Having addressed what is most lacking, we must also point to what is most present.<\/p>\n

In recent years the CHP has taken significant steps toward engaging segments of society it once avoided, and this has made a serious contribution to social peace. Those steps have carried internal political costs as well. The CHP\u2019s share in creating a climate of reduced polarisation\u2014a terrain the ruling party would never choose\u2014is enormous, and for T\u00fcrkiye that matters more than the results of elections that recur at intervals. Without this groundwork, it would have been impossible to win popular support in places like Ad\u0131yaman, Kastamonu, \u00dcsk\u00fcdar, Ey\u00fcpsultan, and many others. The fact that this stance continues despite a change in the party\u2019s top leadership is encouraging for the future. Once today\u2019s dust and din have settled, the gains T\u00fcrkiye has reaped from this institutional effort to embrace everyone will be better understood.<\/p>\n

If the CHP\u2019s k\u0131z\u0131l elma<\/em>\u2014its ultimate prize\u2014is to govern, it is pointless to look outside itself for the number-one obstacle in its path. What the CHP lacks is precisely what the AK Party has: number one\u2014dirayet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the Republican People\u2019s Party (CHP) \u2014 which scored a sweeping victory in the last local elections, defeating the ruling party by historic margins in both the capital and the former capital \u2014 something is not going right.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[175,235,192,236,234],"ppma_author":[19],"class_list":["post-1498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-chp","tag-dirayet","tag-ozgur-ozel","tag-pragmatism","tag-republican-peoples-party"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"authors":[{"term_id":19,"user_id":3,"is_guest":0,"slug":"huseyinrasityilmaz","display_name":"H\u00fcseyin Ra\u015fit Y\u0131lmaz","avatar_url":{"url":"https:\/\/www.toplum.org.tr\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Huseyin-Rasit-Yilmaz.jpg","url2x":"https:\/\/www.toplum.org.tr\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/Huseyin-Rasit-Yilmaz.jpg"},"0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toplum.org.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toplum.org.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toplum.org.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toplum.org.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toplum.org.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.toplum.org.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toplum.org.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.toplum.org.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toplum.org.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toplum.org.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1498"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.toplum.org.tr\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=1498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}