The Republican People's Party (CHP) was founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in 1923, it is the oldest political party of the Republic of Turkey. It has its roots in the progressive Young Turks movement and the Committee of Union and Progress (in power from 1908 to 1918). The CHP was a vehicle for Atatürk's reforms and the center of the One-party Period (1923–1946). The party loosened its grip on power by permitting other political parties to compete in the 1946 election, and initiated a peaceful transition of power to the center-right Democrat Party after losing the 1950 election.

Long considered the party of the state, in the 1965 general election the CHP adopted social democracy to its party platform, positioning itself on the center-left. It was banned by the military junta of 1980 for 12 years, until it was reestablished by Deniz Baykal in 1992. From 2002–2026 the CHP was the main opposition to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the AKP, until the Absolute nullity crisis of 2026.

Formation

Origins

During the Turkish War of Independence, regional patriotic organizations known as Defence of Rights Associations were founded in Anatolia and Rumelia to protest Allied occupation of Turkish territory and safeguard Turkish-Muslim interests. Most members of these associations were previously affiliated with the Committee of Union and Progress, a progressive organization which initiated the Young Turk revolution. After introducing some initial reforms, under the pressures of nationalism and war it later transformed into a dictatorial Turkish nationalist party. The CUP governed the Ottoman Empire from 1908 to 1918, the years 1913–1918 as a dictatorship.

Association for the Defence of National Rights of Anatolia and Rumelia

In the Sivas Congress of 4 –11 September 1919 Mustafa Kemal (Atatürk) and his colleagues formed the Association for the Defence of National Rights of Anatolia and Rumelia (Anadolu ve Rumeli Müdâfaa-i Hukuk Cemiyeti, A-RMHC) which united the regional Defence of Rights Associations and allowed Atatürk to better coordinate nationalist activities in Anatolia. Most members of the A-RMHC, including Atatürk, were previously members of the CUP. The CHP considers the Sivas Congress its first ordinary congress.

Establishment On 23 April 1920, the Government of the Grand National Assembly was established in Ankara by Atatürk as a revolutionary government opposed to the collaborationist government in Istanbul. The Grand National Assembly held an election, which the A-RMHC won uncontested. After GNA forces militarily defeated Greece, France, and Armenia, they overthrew the Ottoman government and abolished the monarchy. The opposition to Kemal in the parliament united under the name "Second Group for Defence of the Rights", often shortened simply to "Second Group" (the followers of Mustafa Kemal were later called "First Group", and were in the majority). In June 1923, new elections were held so Mustafa Kemal could ratify the Treaty of Lausanne with a more unanimous parliament. The 1923 elections were a victory for the First Group and represented the liquidation of the Second Group. On 9 September 1923, the A-RMHC was transformed into a political party called the People's Party, soon changing its name to Republican People's Party (First Cumhuriyet Halk Fırkası, CHF, and then Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi, CHP). With the unanimity of this second parliament, the republic was proclaimed with Atatürk as its first president, the Treaty of Lausanne was ratified, and the Caliphate was abolished the year after.

One-party period under Atatürk: 1923–1938

Consolidating power

In 1924, after the short-period of one-party rule, many of Mustafa Kemal's ex-colleagues, including Rauf (Orbay), Kâzım Karabekir, Ali Fuad (Cebesoy) and others founded a right-wing opposition party called Progressive Republican Party. Among their grievances were their growing loss of power, their opposition to the short period of a one-party rule's revolutionary activities, etc. After the foundation of an opposition party, the People's Party changed its name to "Republican People's Party". The life of the Progressive Republican Party was short. In 1925, the Kurdish lead Sheikh Said rebellion sparked in the east of Turkey. The Progressive Republican Party faced accusations of their involvement in the rebellion and as well in an alleged assassination attempt against Mustafa Kemal. On 5 June it was banned by the government, and Karabekir and many members of the party were court-martialed and imprisoned. Martial law was declared, all political parties except the CHP were banned, and all newspapers beyond state approved papers were banned (this ban would be lifted by 1930). Republican Turkey was the third one-party state of Interwar Europe, after the Soviet Union and Fascist Italy. For the next two decades Turkey was under a paternalist one-party authoritarian dictatorship, with one interruption; another brief experiment of opposition politics through the formation of the Liberal Republican Party.

CHP in power

In the period of 1924–1946, the Republican People's Party introduced sweeping social, cultural, educational, economic, and legal reforms that transformed Turkey into a republican nation state. Such reforms included the adoption of Swiss and Italian legal and penal codes, the acceleration of industrialization, land reform and rural development programs, nationalization of foreign assets, forced assimilation policies, strict secularism, women's suffrage, and switching written Turkish from Perso-Arabic script into Latin script, to name a few.

In the party's second ordinary congress in 1927 (the first official congress after the 1919 Sivas Congress), the CHP was defined as a republican, populist, and nationalist political organization. Atatürk was designated its permanent chairman, and his prime minister İsmet İnönü deputy chairman. Atatürk went on to deliver a thirty-six hour long speech (known as Nutuk, or "The Speech") of his account of the pivotal last ten years of Turkish history, which ended with an appeal to the Turkish youth to protect the Republic. The speech's narrative has served as the basis of a growing cult of personality associated with Atatürk and the historiography of the transition to the Republic from the Sultanate. However this cult of personality would be further fostered after the CHP's fall from power in the 1950s, under the Democrat Party.

With the onset of the Great Depression, the party somewhat divided into statist and liberal factions, being championed by Prime Minister İsmet İnönü and finance minister Celâl Bayar respectively. Atatürk mostly favored İnönü's policies, so economic development of the early republic was largely confined to state-owned enterprises and five-year plans. Further left-wing Republicans centered around the Kadro circle were deemed to be impermissible, so they were closed down. In 1930 Atatürk attempted to address the economic crisis by reintroducing multiparty politics to Turkey (Turkey previously had a pluralistic political climate during the Second Constitutional Era of 1908–1913). The Liberal Republican Party (SCF) was established with a liberal economic agenda, and led by Atatürk's close friend, Ali Fethi Okyar. The 1930 Turkish local elections were the first multiparty elections held in the Turkish Republic, though there were rumors the CHP won many races with electoral fraud. However the SCF was pressured to disband by its founders soon after the İzmir rally, which was showing signs of escalating into an uprising against the government. The demise of the Liberal Republican Party lead to a more controlled political climate.

The CHP held its third ordinary convention the next year. It clarified its ideology with 'The Six Arrows': republicanism, reformism, laïcité (secularism), populism, nationalism, and statism. They defined Atatürk's principles, which were soon known as Kemalism, and were codified into the constitution on 5 February 1937. A community organization attached to the party was founded: Halkevleri (People's Homes). It was decided in the convention that Christians and Jews should be accepted as real Turks as long as they adhere to the national ideal and use the Turkish language.

With the Ottomanism question settled, Turkish nation-building was prioritized which saw nationalist propaganda, language purification, and pseudo-scientific racial theories propagated (such as the Sun Language Theory and Turkish History Thesis). Opposition to Atatürk's reforms were suppressed by various coercive institutions and military force, at the expense of religious conservatives, minorities, and communists. The party-state cracked down on Kurdish resistance to assimilation, suppressing multiple rebellions and encouraging the denial of their existence. Anti-clerical and anti-veiling campaigns peaked in the mid-1930s. Alevis were able to make great strides in their emancipation, and to this day make up a core constituency of the CHP.

The First Five-Year Plan was implemented in 1934 largely financed with Soviet loans. Priority was given to heavy industry and railway construction. Desiring a more liberal economic system, Atatürk dismissed İnönü as Prime Minister in 1937 and appointed Celâl Bayar, the founder of the first Turkish commercial bank, Türkiye İş Bankası, as prime minister, thus beginning a decades long rivalry between Bayar and İnönü.Lord Kinross, Atatürk: A biography of Mustafa Kemal, Father of Modern Turkey (New York: William Morrow & Company, 1965) p. 449.

One-party period under İnönü: 1938–1946

The day after Atatürk's death, his ally İsmet İnönü was unanimously elected president. During its first extraordinary congress on 26 December 1938, İsmet İnönü was elected as the CHP's "permanent chairman". The delegates awarded Atatürk the title "eternal chief", and İnönü the title "national chief". In the fifth ordinary congress in 1939, the CHP established an "Independent group" in parliament to serve as opposition. İnönü dismissed Bayar's government because of differences between the two on economic policy in 1939. İnönü was an avowed statist, while Bayar wished for a more liberal economy. He was replaced by Refik Saydam, and then Şükrü Saracoğlu upon his passing in 1942. Turkey's early industrialization accelerated under İnönü but the onset of World War II disrupted economic growth.

İnönü's presidency saw heavy state involvement in the economy and further rural development initiatives such as Village Institutes, a program conceived by education minister Hasan Âli Yücel. Various scientists, writers, teachers, and doctors graduated from Village Institutes; and supported Turkey's modernization efforts, before the program was terminated by Adnan Menderes's DP government. UNICEF regards the Village Institutes project as exemplary and has placed its curriculum under protection.

On foreign affairs, the Hatay State was annexed and İnönü adopted a policy of neutrality despite attempts by the Allies and Axis powers to bring Turkey into World War II, during which extensive conscription and rationing was implemented to ensure an armed neutrality. Non-Muslims especially suffered when the CHP government implemented discriminatory "wealth taxes," labor battalions, and peon camps. Internal opposition to Turkish neutrality came from ultra-nationalist circles and factions of the military that wished to incorporate the Turkic-populated areas of the Soviet Union by allying with Germany. This almost erupted into a coup d'état against the government. Leading pan-Turkists including Alparslan Türkeş, Nihal Atsız, and Şaik Gökyay were arrested and sentenced to time in prison in the Racism-Turanism trials. The CHP therefore purged itself of ultra-nationalists. With the war's end, Turkey was threatened by the Soviet Union in the Turkish Straits crisis, compelling Turkey to move closer to the United States.