Finally An Alliance On The Left

BY DERYA SAZAK
MILLIYET- A historic step has been taken: The leaders of the Republican People's Party (CHP) and Democratic Left Party (DSP), Deniz Baykal and Zeki Sezer, announced yesterday that they are going to form an alliance for July's general election.

Under this alliance, DSP candidates will compete in the election on the CHP's lists, and so pave the way for a future unification.

This move effectively silences critics who accuse the left of being unable to unite, often made by people who have never voted for leftist parties. After the unification of the center-right True Path Party (DYP) and Motherland Party (ANAVATAN) under the umbrella of the Democrat Party (DP), a new possible ruling coalition has emerged from the alliance of the center-left CHP and DSP. What the demonstrators in recent weeks in Ankara, Istanbul, Manisa and Izmir wanted above all was the unification of the center-left. Baykal and Sezer are now finally realizing this call by the masses.

The leaders of the two parties should work to formulate a more strategic vision for the Turkish center-left, which was split by the Sept. 12, 1980 military coup, as well as to win at least 30% of the votes in July's elections.

Because if this alliance is conceived as a tactical process to limit the DSP's group in Parliament, the CHP's chances of victory over the ruling Justice and Development Party(AKP) will be diminished.

Baykal and Sezer have historic opportunities before them.

The first such opportunity is to come up with projects which will make the center-left a real contender in July's elections and ensure a broad alliance which goes beyond getting familiar members of the two parties into Parliament. Secondly, they could provide Turkey with a more natural political environment, in the wake of coups and transition periods with the center left and right parties, as in European democracies.

If the CHP and DSP buy into the rising nationalism in our society and think only of the coming elections, they can achieve little more on election day than winning some more votes.

The alliance of the center-left will certainly create a synergy due to calls from society, but if this opening is limited to transfers from rightist parties, as in CHP candidate lists as recently reported in the media, and is closed to the left, these hopes will be dashed.

Because social and economic projects such as prosperity and development, reducing unemployment, and ensuring the future of our young people and our EU accession are so much part of the duties of the center left, in other words the CHP and DSP, that they can't be monopolized by the AKP.

Back in the 1970s, the late Bulent Ecevit introduced a leftist model with the slogan 'Neither the depressed nor the depressor/ A just, humanitarian order' and paved the way for freedoms with a civil, democratic program.

Now, it's Baykal and Sezer's turn.

I hope they will also be successful.