The Liberal Republican Party (sometimes referred to as the Free Republican Party; in ) was a political party founded by Ali Fethi Okyar

Ali Fethi Okyar

Ali Fethi Okyar was a Turkish diplomat and politician who also served as a military officer and as a diplomat during the last decade of the Ottoman Empire...

 in the early years of the Turkish Republic

Turkey

Turkey , known officially as the Republic of Turkey , is a Eurasian country located in Western Asia and in East Thrace in Southeastern Europe...

.

Atatürk requested that Okyar create it as an opposition party to confront the ruling Republican People's Party

Republican People's Party (Turkey)

The Republican People's Party is a centre-left Kemalist political party in Turkey. It is the oldest political party of Turkey and is currently Main Opposition in the Grand National Assembly. The Republican People's Party describes itself as "a modern social-democratic party, which is faithful to...

 with the aim of establishing the tradition of multi-party democracy

Democracy

Democracy is generally defined as a form of government in which all adult citizens have an equal say in the decisions that affect their lives. Ideally, this includes equal participation in the proposal, development and passage of legislation into law...

 in Turkey.

However, the party was quickly embraced by the conservatives who saw it as an opportunity to reverse the reforms of Atatürk, particularly regarding secularism

Secularism

Secularism is the principle of separation between government institutions and the persons mandated to represent the State from religious institutions and religious dignitaries...

, and was personally dissolved in November 1930 by Okyar who himself was an ardent supporter of the reforms.

The closure of the Liberal Republican Party left Turkey as a one-party state until the establishment of the National Development Party (Milli Kalkınma Partisi) in 1945 and the Democratic Party in 1946.