^{This page is part of © FOTW Flags Of The World website}

Republican People's Party (Turkey)

Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi - CHP

image by Onur Özgün, 9 August 2001

History of the CHP
Flag of the CHP
Campaign flag

See also:

History of the CHP

The Republican People's Party party was founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the father of the Turkish Republic, in 1923, the year of the proclamation of the Republic.
Prior establishment of multipartism in 1946, the Republican People's Party was the only authorized party in Turkey. It was suppressed with all the other political parties in 1980 after the military coup.

Source: Encyclopaedia Universalis

Ivan Sache, 26 April 2001

Flag of the CHP

The flag was adopted in 1935. The above image was drawn after very detailed construction instructions given on the party website.
The six arrows on the red field represent the six basic principles of the party and of its founder, Kemal Atatürk: Republicanism, Nationalism, Populism, Statism, Secularism and Revolutionism. The shapes of the arrows are copied from old Turkish arrows.

On several flags (photo), the arrows start from an imaginary bowed line. Seen like this, the arrows resemble darts or sunrays; on a small flag, dated from the 1950s, the arrows start from a straight line.
On the party website, a page dedicated to the flag with a detailed construction sheet (including the arrows) and extensive explanations (in Turkish only). The construction sheet shows the bowed line but the next two images below shows how to make it straight.

On some flags, the white letters "CHP" are placed below the arrows.
The flag has sometimes a golden fringe (photo.
The flag also exists as white with red arrows.

Onur Özgün, Jan Mertens & Ivan Sache, 6 April 2009

Campaign flag

image located by Bill Garrison, 11 May 2023

From https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2023/05/turkey-elections-kilicdaroglu-win-could-reset-strained-us-relations?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=takeaway

A light-blue field flag at the campaign rally of CHP (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi = Republican People's Party) presidential candidate Kemal Kilicdaroglu on May 6, 2023, in Istanbul, Turkey. - Burak Kara/Getty Images. Apparently the red/white slogans read: "Sana Sozi" meaning: "Promise to You" (?)

Bill Garrison, 11 May 2023