Another resignation from the CHP! Soner Çetin has resigned

News of resignations from the Republican People's Party (CHP) continues to arrive one after another.

Following former CHP deputy Gürsel Tekin, Çukurova Mayor Soner Çetin also announced his resignation from the CHP in a statement made on his social media account.

"WE ARE WATCHING WITH CONCERN"

Çetin, who was not nominated in the March 31, 2024 local elections, included the following statements in his resignation: "We are watching with concern as the current administration of the Republican People's Party attempts to develop tactics solely aimed at protecting their own intra-party power."

Here is Çetin's statement;

My dear fellow citizens;

I grew up in a family that has been part of the Republican People's Party since my childhood. As I have always stated, I have always been proud to be the grandson of a Kuvayi Milliyeci (National Forces member) who founded the Republican People's Party in Adana in 1923.

Starting from the Youth Branches, I have always been at the service of my party and worked for its success. Even after I was nominated as the Adana Metropolitan Municipality mayoral candidate in 2009 and was removed from candidacy a week later through various political maneuvers, I did not hold a grudge against our party; I worked for the success of the candidate who was nominated in my place.

I have been serving as the Mayor of Çukurova for 10 years, having been elected from the Republican People's Party. I have always been proud to be a CHP member, but with the awareness that the Mayor's office is a place of service, I never brought politics into the municipality. After every election, I took off my party badge and made an effort to provide equal and fair service to everyone and every segment of society.

While performing my duties with this understanding, I always aimed to raise my party's flag to the highest level. I worked day and night in every election we entered, and we received the reward for this in the election results. I made the utmost effort to be a local administrator that our party and our party members would always present with pride.

However, at the point we have reached, we see with sadness that the party to which we have given our lives is being attempted to be usurped and is being distanced from its principles and values. While it should be aiming for power first locally and then nationally, we are watching with concern as the current administration of the Republican People's Party attempts to develop tactics solely aimed at protecting their own intra-party power.

We saw this clearly in the recent candidate determination methods as well. We have sadly experienced a process where concepts that form the party's identity, such as Atatürk's principles, republican values, and the universal rules of social democracy, were ignored; where no criteria for impartiality and merit were taken into account; where intra-party cronyism came to the fore; and where candidacies were distributed through nepotism.

Due to this alarming picture I have witnessed, as someone who has spent his life within the Republican People's Party and has proudly served in many levels of the party, I sadly announce that I have resigned from my party.

However…

This story does not end here!

Respectfully announced to the public…

Değerli hemşehrilerim;
Çocukluğumdan itibaren Cumhuriyet Halk Partili bir ailenin içinde büyüdüm. Her zaman ifade ettiğim gibi 1923’te Cumhuriyet Halk Fırkası’nı Adana’da kuran Kuvayi Milliyeci bir dedenin torunu olmaktan dolayı her zaman gurur duydum.
Gençlik Kollarından… pic.twitter.com/2uXGQstkIJ

— Soner Çetin (@sonercetin01) February 13, 2024