Republican Reliance Party was a former party in Turkey

Turkey

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

 

Background

Republican People's Party (CHP)

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...

 which is usually credited as the founder of Turkish republic in 1923 was the oldest party in Turkey. The ideology of the party was Kemalism with strong emphasis on Laïcité

Laïcité

French secularism, in French, laïcité is a concept denoting the absence of religious involvement in government affairs as well as absence of government involvement in religious affairs. French secularism has a long history but the current regime is based on the 1905 French law on the Separation of...

. Bülent Ecevit

Bülent Ecevit

Mustafa Bülent Ecevit was a Turkish politician, poet, writer and journalist, who was the leader of Republican People's Party , later of the Democratic Left Party and four-time Prime Minister of Turkey.- Personal life :...

, the secretary general of CHP after 1966 however, began introducing newer ideas. Although he didn’t exclude Kemalism, he tried to transform the party into a social democrat party avoiding using the word social democrat. He announced that the party was situated at the left of center in political spectrum

Political spectrum

A political spectrum is a way of modeling different political positions by placing them upon one or more geometric axes symbolizing independent political dimensions....

. But even this announcement caused a rift in the party.

Political History

A group of CHP MPs under the leadership of Turhan Feyzioğlu broke away from CHP and founded Reliance Party on 12 May 1967. Prominent names such as Nermin Neftçi, Coşkun Kırca, Orhan Öztrak, Ali İhsan Göğüs were among the other charter members. In 1969 elections Reliance Party received 6,6 % of votes and became the third party in the parliament.On 29 January 1971, the party was renamed as National Reliance Party. In the same year the party participated in the Technocracy government and the next year Ferit Melen

Ferit Melen

Ferit Sadi Melen was a Turkish civil servant, politician and Prime Minister of Turkey.-Biography:After finishing the high school in Bursa, he obtained a degree in finance from the School of Political Science at Ankara University in 1931...

, a member of the party became the prime minister.
On 4 May 1973, Republican Party

Republican Party (Turkey)

Republican Party was a former political party in Turkey Republican People’s party which is usually credited as the founder of Turkish republic in 1923 was the oldest party in Turkey. But after the party adopted the policy of so called left of center in 1960s, two groups of MPs broke away from...

, another party also issued from CHP, merged to Nationalistic Reliance Party. After merging, the party was renamed as Republican Reliance Party.

Later years

In 1973 elections, Republican Reliance Party received 5,3 % and participated in the colalition government of 1975 led by Justice Party

Justice Party (Turkey)

The Justice Party was a Turkish political party prominent in the 1960s and 1970s. A descendant of the Democrat Party, the AP was dominated by Süleyman Demirel, who served six times as prime minister, and was in office at the time of the military coup on September 12, 1980...

. The party further lost support in 1977 elections and after the coup’d etat of 1980 the party was closed by the military rule on 16 October 1981.