Turkish Political Parties Participating In Turkey Elections 2018
Turkish Political Parties Participating In Turkey Elections 2018: Turkey is the world’s 7th largest agricultural producer, and the agricultural sector accounts for 25 percent of its workforce and 8 percent of its economic activity.
The country will hold presidential and parliamentary elections on 24 June. If no candidate wins an outright majority in the first round of the presidential elections, a second round will be held on 8 July between the top two candidates in the race.
Following are the political parties running in Turkey and their political inclinations.
AK Party
The AK Party (Justice and Development Party) is a conservative, center-right party that identifies itself as a “conservative democratic” party.
The party was established in 2001 by incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, after its predecessor, the Virtue Party, was shut down in 2001.
The Virtue Party was banned by the judiciary on charges of acting against some articles of the constitution, which imply secularism.
The CHP formed the Nation’s Alliance for the upcoming parliamentary elections with Iyi (Good) Party, Saadet (Felicity) Party and Demokrat (Democrat) Party.
MHP (Nationalist Movement Party)
The MHP, or Nationalist Movement Party is the third largest party in Turkey that falls on the right of the political spectrum. It is a party based on Turkish nationalism, and its definition of nationalism takes both cultural and ethnic forms.
It is the second-oldest party running in the 2018 elections, Formed in 1969 during the Cold War, its ideology was shaped by the right-left clashes taking place in Turkey at the time. Thus, its roots are in tenets like ultra-nationalism, anti-communism, militancy and a strong state.
Iyi (Good) Party
The Iyi (Good) Party is an opposition party that was established in 2017 by Meral Aksener. It is an offshoot of the MHP that was formed when a group of MPs split from the party due to Bahceli’s cooperation with the AK Party.
Much like its parent party, it has a nationalist stance, which prompted some to doubt its ability to appeal to Kurdish voters.
HDP (People’s Democratic Party)
The HDP has a strong base in Turkey’s Kurdish-majority areas. It is the successor to the left-wing BDP (Peace and Democracy Party).
The party supports social democrat values combined with a left-wing approach. Its voter base consists primarily of Kurds, with some leftists, liberals and feminists, as the party includes gender equality high on its agenda and has a female co-chair.
The party has close ties with the US and also many European countries based on its stance on minority rights; and also with Russia based on its left-wing approach.
BBP (Great Unity Party)
The BBP was founded in 1993 by Muhsin Yazicioglu, who was killed in a helicopter crash under mysterious circumstances in 2009.
The members of the right-wing and nationalist party were separated from the MHP, and founded the BBP to stand for a more religiously conservative approach.
The party received around 0.53 percent of the vote in 2015 and has no seats in parliament.
The party aims for a state administration that depends on conservatism, nationalism and national culture with the preservation of major nationalistic values of Turkey through democratic means.
Its foreign policy aims to establish economic, social and cultural associations with the Muslim world and Turkic states. The party has been headed by Mustafa Destici since 2011.
Saadet (Felicity) Party
The Felicity Party is the second party formed out of the Virtue Party’s shutdown in 2001, but maintained the more conservative approach of its predecessor compared to the AK Party. When the AK Party founders were separated to form a reformist political party, the Saadet Party called itself ‘traditionalist.’
It is currently headed by Temel Karamollaoglu who is running in the presidential election.
It received around 0.68 per cent of the votes in the last election.
Demokrat (Democrat) Party
The party was founded in 1946 after a split within the CHP and won in Turkey’s first multi-party elections in 1950 under the leadership of Adnan Menderes.
The party has a centre-right and liberal approach. During its first years, it pursued policies along democratic and liberal lines. Later, it took a more conservative line, drawing harsh criticism from the opposition.
Menderes was arrested during the 1960 military coup and was hanged in 1961, along with two of his government’s ministers. The party was banned from politics and closed.
All the powerful right-wing parties who had popular support after 1960 coup claimed they were successors of the DP.
It re-emerged in the mid-2000s after two small right-wing parties merged and received 0.14 per cent of votes in the last election.
Vatan (Patriotic) Party
Between the 1970s and 1990s, it was called the Workers’ Party and had Maoist and socialist leanings. In the 2000s, the party shifted towards an ultra-nationalist stance, which culminated in its rebranding to Patriotic Party in 2015.
Its nationalism does not have a conservative stance; rather the party describes itself as leftist and secularist.
Its foreign policy approach centres on a Eurasian ideology, and thus seeks increased cooperation with those countries. It’s anti-American and also opposes EU membership.
HUDA-PAR (Free Cause) Party
HUDA-PAR is a far-right, conservative party with a primarily Kurdish voter base.
The party prioritizes religious identity over ethnicity, despite most of its supporters being Kurds, who are critical of the HDP. It has taken various stances regarding the demand for autonomy. The party hasn’t declared any support for the decentralization agenda of the HDP, while it supported the KRG’s independence referendum in Iraq.
HUDA-PAR says it will support Erdogan in the 2018 presidential election. Their candidates ran independently in the 2015 general elections.