Turkish politics never ceases to spring surprises, and the latest has come almost unexpectedly: three political parties have announced that they will merge to create a political formation and strengthen their presence in Turkey’s parliament, with the added circumstance that two of the three parties are led by former ministers of Erdoğan and members of his AKP party.
Numerous Turkish media confirmed in recent hours that the Future Party (Gelecek Partisi), the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA Parti) and the Felicity Party (Saadet Partisi) will be finalising the details to create the new ‘umbrella’ party that will bring together the three political formations during a meeting today, and that they plan to submit the formal application to found the new party to the Interior Ministry tomorrow (Friday).
The meeting is expected to agree on the logo and name of the new political entity, among other key issues, although several sources say the most likely name at this stage is the New Way Party (Yeni Yol Partisi). Once created, the new party would apply next week to form a new parliamentary group. All indications, however, are that the three parties will maintain their separate identity and legal personality within the new formation, at least for the time being.
The decision to create this new political formation has been precipitated by a series of resignations that have put the representativeness of these parties in jeopardy; in recent weeks, two prominent DEVA MPs, Mustafa Yeneroğlu and Burak Dalgın, have announced their resignations to express their dissatisfaction with the direction the party is taking. While it is rumoured that Yeneroğlu has already reached an agreement to join the ranks of Erdoğan’s AKP, and that Dalgın will join Turkey’s main opposition party, it is believed that at least two more DEVA deputies could leave the party in the coming hours or days.
A new party born amid resignations and problems
To these problems – which have left DEVA for now with only 10 of its original 13 deputies – must be added those that former Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu’s Future Party has also been experiencing, after one of its deputies, Mustafa Nedi̇m Yamalı, resigned over growing rumours that the party was planning to merge itself into the AKP, with Davutoğlu himself sending several messages in recent weeks signaling this possibility.
This resignation caused the parliamentary group formed by the Future Party and the Felicity Party to dissolve, falling below the minimum 20 MPs needed to form a group; but thanks to the intervention of DEVA – which ‘loaned’ two of its MPs to the Felicity Party – the parliamentary group was created again.
If there are no new resignations, the new party that emerged from this merger will have 30 MPs, which theoretically should give the new ‘New Way Party’ a sufficient safety margin above the 20 MPs needed to form a group: this guarantees it privileges such as being able to participate in parliamentary committees and meetings, speak during plenary sessions, or appoint members to the Supreme Council of Radio and Television (RTÜK), among other benefits. However, analysts say that resignations of discontent elements – especially in the DEVA and the Future Party – will continue, especially once the ‘merge’ becomes official.
It should not be forgotten that none of these three political parties won direct parliamentary representation in the last legislative and presidential elections in Turkey, but that these parties won seats in parliament because they were integrated – as part of a grand electoral coalition – on the lists of the main opposition party, the CHP: otherwise, they would have fallen below the 10% of national vote required in Turkey for a party to win parliamentary representation. It is also the case that not only Davutoğlu – who was Erdoğan’s advisor, foreign minister and prime minister – but also Babacan was a member of the AKP, and indeed one of its founders.
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As a history lover, Pablo Gómez was captivated by Turkey from the first day he visited it in 2006: he got married there, has a house there… and has since become an expert on Turkey’s current affairs. With a long experience in media, he has been at the helm of hispanatolia.com since 2011.
