13th Republican People's Party Extraordinary Convention 13th Republican People's Party Extraordinary Convention The 13th Extraordinary Convention of the Republican People's Party (Turkish: "13. Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi Olağanüstü Kurultayı)" was held on 29 and 30 January 2005 in order to elect a leader for the Republican People's Party (CHP), a Turkish centre-left political party. Incumbent leader Deniz Baykal was challenged by the Mayor of Şişli, Mustafa Sarıgül for the leadership. The convention was marred by violence between supporters of the two rivals, who had accused each other of corruption and elitism during their speeches. The final result was a victory for Baykal, who won 59.4% of the
Religion in Turkey in government buildings, schools, and public universities; the law was upheld by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights as "legitimate" in the "Leyla Şahin v. Turkey" case on November 10, 2005. Separation between mosque and state was established in Turkey soon after its founding in 1923, with an amendment to the Turkish constitution that mandated that Turkey had no official state religion and that the government and the state were to be free of religious influence. The modernizing reforms undertaken by President Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in the 1920s and 1930s further established secularism in Turkey. Despite