Republican Reliance Party

Republican Reliance Party (Turkish: Cumhuriyetçi Güven Partisi, CGP) was a former party in Turkey

Background

Republican People's Party (CHP) 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 secularism. Bülent Ecevit, 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 (Turkish: Ortanın Solu). 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, a member of the party became the prime minister. On 4 May 1973, Republican Party, 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. The party further lost support in 1977 elections and after the coup’d etat in 1980, like all other parties in the country, the party was banned by the military rule on 16 October 1981.