No free lunch at main opposition CHP

"As always" my friend Zeynep said on the phone, tired but in an incredibly excited voice, "there is a bit of chaos here at the [main opposition Republican People's Party] CHP's final rally in Istanbul. But I have never seen anything like this before. I am so happy for our colleagues and our country." She was entering Maltepe Park's rally ground as the final hours of Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's long "March for Justice" took place.

Let us be fair. The CHP's conventions were always chaotic. From the nametags to seating arrangements, from speech orders to lists, it was always problematic. The press would be sweating as though in a sauna, there would be very little food or drinks, yet people would still continue to fight for a seat in the party assembly. After this long march, even the conventions would have to change. Kılıçdaroğlu singlehandedly taught the party heavyweights that there will be no free lunch anymore and even the poshest municipalities in Istanbul like Şişli and Beşiktaş or even the Aegean district of Bodrum have to contribute to the efforts. One major lesson learned from this "March for Justice" is the discipline the CHP's local chapters lacked for years. Kadir Gökmen Öğüt, a member of the party assembly, expressed how important the march was for them. "Our chapters did not know each other, they learned how to act like one, and we did not know how to deal with the police or the gendarmerie. This long march taught us how to deal with the state," he said on private broadcaster Halk TV. 

Kılıçdaroğlu's authority and his managing techniques have been questioned even by the smallest local CHP chapters' chairs before. Walk into a small town in the provinces of Antalya, Bursa or Çanakkale, and you would meet a CHP village head who would start...