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Turkey’s Opposition Faces Leadership Crisis After Protests

The winds of hope raised by Kemal Dervis’ entry into politics in 2002 and those raised by the Gezi Park protesters looked alike from the surface, and they may share the same fate in the end.
Turkey's main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu addresses his supporters during a demonstration in Ankara March 27, 2012. Thousands of Turkish opposition supporters demonstrated in the capital Ankara on Tuesday against a government attempt to railroad a new education bill through parliament which secular parties say is designed to promote Islamic schooling. The government wants to overturn a 1997 law imposed with the backing of the military which led to a sharp decrease in

What do you think about comparing the winds of hope raised by Kemal Dervis prior to the November 2002 elections and those of the Gezi Park protests, and paying attention to the lesson learned back then? Let me explain what I am talking about:

When the late Ismail Cem, one of Turkey’s former foreign ministers, founded the New Turkey Party (YTP) in July 2002, splitting from the Democratic Left Party (DSP) with a group of his close friends, there was an assumption that Kemal Dervis would join them. That speculation got crowds excited. Many thought that with Dervis joining the YTP, Cem’s victory in the November 2002 election would be guaranteed.

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