ALİ ASLAN KILIÇ, ANKARA
Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) has been shaken by disagreement among some party members concerning the ongoing settlement process, initiated by the government to end the long-standing terrorism and Kurdish problems in the country, resulting in the resignation of a top party member, Deputy Chairwoman Gülseren Onanç.

The disputes over the settlement process at the CHP have become more visible after Onanç resigned from her position due to her remarks in support of the settlement process. Likewise, CHP Deputy Chairman Sezgin Tanrıkulu, who is also a supporter of the process, was subjected to the accusation that he was a US agent by another CHP deputy during the party's parliamentary meeting last week.

Onanç's resignation followed the party's Central Executive Board (MYK) meeting on Wednesday. She stepped down after criticism mounted within the party against her pro-settlement statements concerning the government's ongoing peace efforts for a political and peaceful solution to the decades-old Kurdish conflict. Onanç stated that although she resigned from the position of deputy chairperson, she continues to be a member of the party's general assembly.

Speaking to the NTV news channel regarding her resignation, Onanç said, “I believe a political atmosphere in which I can depend on my own ideas no longer exists within the CHP.” Onanç stated that she joined the party with some of her friends with the intention of changing the face of the party, but they could not accomplish their goal. She added, “Politicians should have their own dreams and ideals.”

Releasing a written statement on her Twitter account on Thursday, Onanç said that she joined the CHP with great expectations in 2010 and was appointed to the position of deputy chairperson in August 2012. She added that she believes the CHP should not be isolated from the settlement process which carries great significance for Turkey as a whole. She believes that the CHP should generate more active policies and contribute in a constructive manner to the settlement process. She resigned because the political attitudes of the party and her own were not the same, adding that she could not continue with her managing position in the party.

Onanç was attracting attention in regard to her positive stance concerning the settlement process being carried out by the government with the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) for ending the Kurdish issue. Onanç recently said 65 percent of CHP supporters endorse the ongoing settlement process, a statement that clearly contradicts the official position of the main opposition party, whose leader, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, regularly criticizes the government over its policies concerning the Kurdish issue.

The CHP was supportive of the settlement process at the beginning, but later withdrew its support, claiming that the government was not sufficiently informing the opposition about the course of the process.

Following the MYK meeting on Wednesday evening, Kılıçdaroğlu invited Onanç to his office at the party headquarters and asked her to resign from her position in the party after harshly criticizing her stance over the settlement process.

According to data Today's Zaman acquired from its sources within the party, the meeting of Kılıçdaroğlu and Onanç lasted for 40 minutes. The sources said Kılıçdaroğlu expressed his disturbance with her acts in contradiction to the official position of party toward the settlement process. Kılıçdaroğlu asked Onanç to resign from the party after reportedly saying: “It was not right for you to present a public survey as a survey conducted by the party itself when it was not one. I had previously warned you a few times to be cautious while making statements to the media regarding the settlement process. We cannot go on with you like this.”

Expecting this move from Kılıçdaroğlu, Onanç submitted her resignation. Backing her remarks, Onanç reportedly told her friends following her resignation that she had just shared the results of public surveys, adding that half of the party's voters support the settlement process. But Onanç reportedly stated, “I am still backing my thoughts and remarks.”
Onanç's resignation welcomed by some in CHP

Commenting on the resignation of Onanç to Today's Zaman, former CHP İzmir Deputy Canan Arıtman supported Kılıçdaroğlu for requesting Onanç's resignation by stating that Kılıçdaroğlu is paying the price for assigning duty to people who don't have the same ideology with the CHP. Arıtman said: “The settlement is not a peace process. It is deceptive bargaining process being conducted by the government. The CHP's base has been already aware of this deceptive process and they don't support this process contrary to what Onanç says. Onanç expressed her own ideas, not the ideas of the CHP voters. Onanç is not a CHP supporter at all. I don't believe she votes for the CHP in the elections. Her assignment to the deputy chairperson position in the party was a big mistake. Another person similar to Onanç is Sezgin Tanrıkulu [another CHP chairperson]. The CHP's base is disturbed with people who serve the party, although they don't have the same political ideology with the party.”

The CHP Mersin Deputy İsa Gök told Today's Zaman that the exact problem is not the resignation of a deputy chairperson in the party; adding that the real problem is that people who don't support CHP have been appointed to the leading positions by the CHP administration. “I had been voicing my criticisms concerning this issue for two years. Now, what is happening in the party proves my criticisms. Onanç says she came to the position to change the CHP, but she says she could not accomplish her intention. Change is indispensable. It occurs within time … what she was trying to do was not a change, but assimilating,” Gök noted.

Former CHP Deputy Chairman Onur Öymen commented to Today's Zaman that when a person joins a party, they read the bylaw of the party and then join after internalizing the principles in the bylaw. Referring to Onanç, Öymen said resignation becomes indispensable for a person who joins without internalizing the principles in the bylaw.

The CHP Konya Deputy Atilla Kart told Today's Zaman that he is very sorry for his friend's resignation.

The CHP deputy Chairman Adnan Keskin told the reporters on Thursday that the resignation of Onanç is not related to the nationalism or liberalism as it is covered in the media. Stating that there is no disturbance in the party, Keskin stated: “There was not discussion over the remarks of Onanç or any disturbance in MYK meeting on Wednesday. Our friend [Onanç] decided to resign during her meeting with the CHP leader following the meeting.”
CHP deputy Akgün referred to disciplinary board

The CHP parliamentary group administration referred on Thursday the party's Uşak deputy, Akagün Yılmaz, to the party's disciplinary board over remarks she made against CHP Deputy Chairman Tanrıkulu during the parliamentary group meeting of the party last week.

According to Turkish media reports, tensions rose during the CHP's parliamentary group meeting over the party's stance towards the government's recent initiative to end terrorism in the country. Some deputies targeted Deputy Chairman Tanrıkulu, a Kurd and former head of the Diyarbakır Bar Association, with harsh remarks over a bill he prepared on establishing a parliamentary commission to address the Kurdish issue. After Tanrıkulu defended his move, Uşak deputy Yılmaz, a staunch opponent of the settlement process, reportedly told him: “You just came to the party and now you are ruling the party. You are a CIA agent. Get out!”

The Anatolia news agency reported on Thursday that the CHP parliamentary group administration convened on Thursday to discuss Yılmaz's remarks and decided to refer her to the party's disciplinary board.

Speaking to Anatolia on Thursday, Yılmaz also commented on Onanç's departure, saying the party would “lose nothing with her resignation.”

In the meantime, members of the CHP district branch in Beyşehir in central Konya province have resigned from the CHP on Thursday, citing the rise of ultra-nationalist factions within the party.

Sinan Özdemir, the head of the CHP Beyşehir district branch, told media that he and the members of the district council left the party due to the increasing presence within the party of Nationalist Movement Party (MHP)-like groups.

“The intolerance and lack of mutual respect and sympathy are so strong. The micro-nationalist factions occupy key positions within the party and this is the major reason for our resignation,” Özdemir said on Thursday.

The government has been having talks with the terrorist PKK and the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP) to find a solution to the country's decades-old Kurdish issue. National Intelligence Organization (MİT) officers and the imprisoned leader of the PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, have been negotiating on İmralı Island since October of last year, with the government saying the primary purpose of the talks is disarming the PKK.

Today's Zaman