TRUE PATH PARTY

A major centrist political party in Turkey from the late 1980s to the end of the 1990s.

The True Path Party (Doĝu Yol Partisi, or DYP) was founded in 1983 by former members of the Justice Party. The military's National Security Council had banned former Justice Party chair Süleyman Demirel from active participation in politics until 1987; nevertheless, he was the behind-the-scenes driving force for the organization of the DYP. After his political activity ban had been lifted, Demirel became DYP's chair and led it to victory in the 1991 parliamentary elections. DYP won the largest number of seats, but not an absolute majority, and so formed a coalition government with the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP). Upon the sudden death of President Turgut Özal in 1993, the Turkish Grand National Assembly voted for Demirel to be the new chief of state, and he resigned as the party's chair. DYP then chose Tansu Çiller as its leader, and she subsequently formed a new coalition government with SHP as Turkey's first woman prime minister. DYP lost its parliamentary plurality to the Refah Party in the 1995 elections. It formed a brief coalition with its rival, the Motherland Party, in early 1996, then joined Refah in a coalition from June 1996 to June 1997. Nevertheless, DYP's appeal continued to erode, and in the 1999 parliamentary elections it secured just 15 percent of seats. In the 2002 elections DYP fared even worse, receiving less than 10 percent of the overall nationwide vote and thus no seats in the parliament.

see alsoÇiller, tansu; demirel, sÜleyman; justice party; motherland party; national security council (turkey); refah partisi; social democratic populist party; turkish grand national assembly.

Bibliography

Hooglund, Eric. "Government and Politics." In Turkey: A Country Study, edited by Helen Chapin Metz. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1996.

frank tachau
updated by m. hakan yavuz