As long as Baykal, 70, wants to remain in party politics, he will survive as the leader. Not because he is successful in national politics, making his party a real contender in elections -- no, the CHP under his leadership has never won in any election -- but because he is successful in eliminating his political rivals within the party. He has no hope of gaining the upper hand in future national elections, but he is content with his position as the main opposition leader -- a position which enables him to live as flamboyant and ostentatious a life as the prime minister does. Luxury cars, vast offices, secretaries, travel expenses, a large entourage and tight security are all his. He leads a life as leader of the main opposition party not too different from the leader of the party in power, but without the responsibility and harsh criticism incumbent upon prime ministers.

Baykal is influential in business life, too. According to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's will, the CHP, the party he founded and led after its inception, is one of the main beneficiaries of his legacy. Since Atatürk's legacy contains bonds and shares in İş Bankası, two seats on the bank's board are allocated to the CHP. With these two seats, the CHP is in a position to exert leverage over some business transactions. For instance, when the Aydın Doğan Group decided to buy Petrol Ofisi (PO), the most important oil distribution chain in Turkey, it made an alliance with İş Bankası as a co-owner and used İş Bankası credit, with the approval of the CHP board members.

Aydın Doğan is the press baron who controls over more than half of the media power in Turkey.

Curiously enough, the Doğan Media Group groomed one of Baykal's rivals in this convention. A young aspirant who never set foot in CHP headquarters was pushed onto the nation's political stage by newspapers and TV stations belonging to the Doğan Media Group. By seeing his picture every day in major papers, giving interviews to prominent journalists and taking political lessons from seasoned pundits, the young chap started dreaming himself at the helm of the CHP.

How miserable he must have felt when he was unable to convince enough delegates to sign his nomination petition. He was like a plaything at the hands of media personalities who assisted him all along to relay a strong message to Baykal that his fate would be determined by the same people who supported him on his voyage to become the leader of the CHP eight years ago. He has been in politics for 35 years, and for 14 of those years he has been the leader of the CHP. His leadership was cut off in 1999 for a brief compulsory holiday when he resigned after his party's failure to gain a single seat in Parliament. He owes his comeback to media outlets which supported him and helped him re-establish his reign.

If you scratch my back, a time will come when I will scratch yours. Baykal's life story as a political leader has been mired with too many lost opportunities. In the latest opportunity he so generously passed up, Baykal would have become a real champion of democracy by making his party a sincere supporter of the democratic process at a time when the country needed a politician who would put his country's best interest before his own party's urgent expediency. Instead he created a lot of obstacles and complications for the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) during the presidential election last year. When the military issued an e-declaration to voice its displeasure for the AK Party's candidate, Baykal remained silent.

He blames the AK Party for the closure case opened by the chief prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals and never raises any argument for the unsportsmanlike attitude of attempting to close parties and to strip politicians of their political rights.

Unlike other party leaders, Baykal didn't accept President Abdullah Gül's invitation to a luncheon in honor of National Sovereignty Day on April 23.

I thought I knew him very well when I expected him to turn himself and his party into a model for contemporary opposition as it is conducted in Western countries. He had the potential and the means since he is a political scientist by profession and has been serving in the Socialist International movement as one of its deputy leaders. He did just the opposite: Rather than changing himself and his party according to the new political atmosphere of Turkey, becoming more attuned to democratic principles and in line with the people's demands, he tried to change the atmosphere of Turkey by bending democratic principles and going against the people's demands. And how successful he has been at that!

The stained tableau we face right now in Turkish politics has been produced in close collaboration with the CHP.

Baykal is a successful leader of a party which has not enjoyed any political success in the multi-party democratic era.