High-profile resignation rocks Turkey’s secular opposition CHP
Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party is facing a shakeup as its popular deputy chair resigns over party’s inability to effectively respond to impending new political regime.
In the wake of Turkey’s historic April 16 referendum, the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) is facing a shakeup. The CHP’s rising star, US-educated economist Selin Sayek Boke, resigned from her positions as deputy chair and party spokesperson May 6.
Boke’s resignation announcement, shared on Twitter, read, “On April 16, at least 50% of Turkey’s voters opposed the one-man regime but their will was usurped through non-legal means,” referring to fraud allegations in the referendum. Without naming CHP chairman Kemal Kilicdaroglu, Boke criticized the party’s inability to formulate an effective response to the impending new political regime in Turkey and added, “The prevalent attitude in the CHP administration, instead of strengthening the voice of the millions coalescing around democracy, has acted in a manner that casts doubt on democracy within the party.”
Joining the CHP in 2014, Boke offered a fresh face and voice to Turkey’s male-dominated political environment. Her academic work on foreign investment, growth-promotion strategies, productivity and labor markets was a major plus for the CHP, which often appears unable to challenge the allegedly market-friendly policies of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
As a politician, Boke has shown courage under fire. In February 2016, the pro-AKP newspaper Bugun found out that Boke’s father, the prestigious physician Iskender Sayek, is an Arab Christian from Hatay province, and that Boke may have been baptized as a baby. As Al-Monitor’s Pinar Tremblay observed at the time, Boke’s response was measured, cool-headed and embracing of Turkey’s diverse social fabric.
