CHP, an associate member of the PES, won the two most important cities in the country – the capital Ankara, and Istanbul, the biggest city on the continent of Europe. The party is the main opposition to the Erdogan regime, secured 30% of the vote and finished second nationwide, putting in a strong challenge to Erdogan’s AKP, which has 44% of the vote.
PES President Sergei Stanishev said:
“I would like to congratulate the CHP (Republican People’s Party) and their leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu on this solid result. They fought a strong campaign and are convincing more and more people to back a democratic Turkey.
By winning Ankara and Istanbul, the CHP achieved much more than the two most important mayors in Turkey. People in the country saw that democracy can win, despite Erdogan’s repression against opposition candidates, the threats, the government’s propaganda machine and the censorship of the media.”
The other PES associate member party from Turkey – HDP Peoples’ Democratic Party (Halklarin Demokratik Partisi) – finished in fourth place nationwide, with 4.2% of the vote. The co-chair of HDP, Selahattin Demirtas, was imprisoned by Turkish authorities in November 2016 and is still awaiting trial, despite the European Court of Human Rights ordering the termination of the unlimited pre-trial detention. The PES has protested the illegal detention on several occasions.
