“The streets bought the normalization,” Özgür Özel, head of the Republican People’s Party (CHP), says. Since the March 31 municipal elections, Özel has met President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan four times, in two formal and two informal meetings. The number is quite high given the staunch rivalry between the main opposition and Erdoğan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party).
Some call it “normalization” and others, like Erdoğan, describe it as “a softening climate in Turkish politics.” Regardless, Özel told Yavuz Donat of the Sabah newspaper that voters had faith in this political shift.
Last November, Özel replaced veteran CHP Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu who barely met Erdoğan during both men’s lengthy tenure in Turkish politics, except at a solidarity rally after a 2016 coup attempt. When the CHP made significant gains in municipal elections for the first time against the AK Party in decades, the two sides softened their rhetoric against each other. Özel was the first to meet Erdoğan at AK Party headquarters and Erdoğan returned it with a visit to the CHP’s main offices.
Özel told Donat that some people “on both sides” might be disturbed by this new phase but such a stance is against the common benefit of the country and the nation. He said he was particularly pleased with what the “other side” had to say, citing a recent visit to Erdoğan’s hometown Rize.
“I listened to the issues they complained about. They used to ignore us in the past but now they are listening to us as well. Our electorate already stands with us but being able to be listened to by them is very important. The government and the opposition may have tensions occasionally but we should never lose the ground for courtesy and discussions,” he was quoted on Monday.
Apart from Özel’s meetings with Erdoğan and vice versa, the CHP and the government arranged meetings of Cabinet ministers and the opposition’s shadow ministers in the past few months. Still, both sides do not shy away from harsh criticism of each other, most notably during a recent spat over amendments to an animal protection bill proposed by the AK Party. Erdoğan, for his part, blasted CHP-run municipalities last week over their failure to pay debts to the country’s Social Security Institution (SGK).
