INSIGHT TURKEY • Vol. 9 / Number 1 ¦ 127 The Cyprus Policy of the CHP: Change or Continuation? Seçkin Barýþ Gülmez* This work will discuss the views of the current main opposition party in Turkey on Cyprus problem focusing on the three main areas of criticisms raised by the party officials. Accordingly, in comparison with the policies adopted by its predecessors, the article will try to find an answer to the question whether the Cyprus policy of today’s CHP constitute a change from or continuation of those of the CHP in the past. Approximately three years after the failure of the Annan Plan prepared for an aspiration to settle the Cyprus issue, Deniz Baykal, leader of the main opposition party of Turkey, Republican People’s Party (CHP) urged that Turkey must pursue a decisive Cyprus policy based on two separate states in the island. However, the Cyprus problem is a unique matter for Turkey and especially for the CHP which is the first political party in the Turkish Republic. The latest remarks by the opposition party leader seem to remind Turkish public of the importance and urgency of the existing Cyprus problem, which is not supposed to be undermined in Turkey. According to Duverger, opposition parties who remain too much in the opposition tend to act more violently and extravagantly. 1 It could be true for the CHP, which could not become the governing party since 1970s. When one looks at the deeds of the main opposition party concerning Cyprus problem, criticisms raised by the CHP could be taken as aggressive struggling to preserve the status quo. The party’s critics were mainly focused on three main pillars. First of all the party was strongly against any possibility of linking the Cyprus issue to Turkey’s EU membership process. The second pillar was the Annan plan. It was too unacceptable for the CHP. The CHP’s third pillar of criticism was the AKP government and its Cyprus policy. (*) Seçkin Barýþ Gülmez is PhD candidate at the Institute of Principles of Atatürk and History of Turkish Revolution, Dokuz Eylül University, Izmir, Turkey.