Motherland Party

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The Motherland Party, (Turkish: Anavatan Partisi, abbreviated as ANAVATAN (formerly ANAP) was a political party in Turkey. It was founded in 1983 by Turgut Özal.^[1] It was merged to Democratic Party in October 2009. The ANAP was considered a centre-right nationalist party which supported restrictions on the role that government can play in the economy, which favoured private capital and enterprise, and which allowed for some public expressions of religion.

History as a majority

In the National Assembly on 6 November 1983, the Populist Party and the Motherland party were allowed to run for office. The ANAP won 212 of the 450 available seats and Turgut Özal, the leader of the party, became the Prime Minister^[2] . The ANAP maintained a majority in the government of Turkey from 1983 until 1991. Turgut Özal held the position of Prime Minister from 1983 to 1989, then President from 1989 to 1993. Ozal died in office, and was succeeded by the True Path Party leader, Suleyman Demirel.

After the 1983 National assembly, ANAP allowed all political parties to participate in the local elections. In 1987, ANAP removed the 10 year ban on over 200 leaders of the Republican People's Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi—CHP) and Justice Party (Adalet Partisi—AP), allowing them to run for office and participate in political affairs. The ANAP won 292 of the 450 seats that year.^[3]

During this time, the ANAP leaders transformed the Turkish economy by beginning free-market reforms, particularly cutting down the public area and moving towards privately owned business. In 1987, the ANAP-led government filed for admission into the European Economic Community, the forerunner of the European Union. However, this attempt to enter the EEC was ended when the ANAP criticized the customs union of the EEC and decided the admission terms prescribed by the EEC to be not in the best interest of Turkey or its people. In 1991 ANAP lost the majority to a coalition of the True Path and Social Democrats parties.^[4]

Fall from relevance

After its longest run, the ANAP has had few opportunities to return to leadership. In 1995, The Motherland party formed a brief coalition with the True Path Party (DYP), another centre-right oriented party, that allowed their influence to return for a short period of time. Then, from July 1997 to November 1998, the ANAP was returned to the head of government with the leader Mesut Yılmaz during Turkey's first televised elections.^[5]

However, The ANAP suffered one of the largest defeats during the April 1999 elections and became the fourth largest political party in Turkey with only 14% of the votes. Following these elections, ANAP received only 86 of 365 seats in the Parliament. During the 2002 elections, they got only 5.12% of the votes and no seats in Parliament.^[6]

Merger

On 5 May 2007, it was announced that ANAP and True Path Party would merge to the Democratic Party (DP). However, this failed and ANAP announced that it would not run for the upcoming elections.

From 2008 to 2009, its president was Salih Uzun. On 31 October 2009, it was merged to Democratic Party.^[7]

Leaders

The chief executive member of the party is called the Genel Başkan. He/She is elected by party delegates in biennial party congresses. The party had seven leaders since its foundation in 1983 until 2009:

1. Turgut Özal (May 20, 1983 – October 31, 1989)
2. Yıldırım Akbulut (November 16, 1989 – June 15, 1991)
3. Mesut Yılmaz (June 15, 1991 – November 4, 2002)
4. Ali Talip Özdemir (November 18, 2002 – October 3, 2003)
5. Nesrin Nas (October 15, 2003 – March 21, 2005)
6. Erkan Mumcu (April 2, 2005 – October 26, 2008)
7. Salih Uzun (October 26, 2008 – October 31, 2009)

(During periods between the resignation or incapacitation of a leader and the election of a new one, the central committee of the party collectively acted as leader.)

External links

• Motherland Party official website (Turkish)

See also

• "Country Profile: Turkey." MSN Encarta
• "The Motherland Party". http://www.anap.org.tr/. Retrieved January 20, 2005. 

References

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