Түркиядағы "Анамекен" партиясы

Political party in Turkey

The Motherland Party (Anavatan Partisi, abbreviated as ANAP) was a political party in Turkey. It was founded in 1983 by Turgut Özal. It merged with the Democrat Party in October 2009. The ANAP was considered a centre right neoliberal and liberal conservative party that supported restrictions on the role that government can play in the economy and also supported private capital and enterprise and some public expressions of religion. In social policy, it emphasised Islamic values, but represented a different, modern understanding of Islam compared to the Islamist parties; in economic policy it advocated liberalisation and a free market economy.

The ANAP was founded on 20 May 1983. The ANAP maintained a majority in the government of Turkey from 1983 until 1991. Turgut Özal held the position of Prime Minister from 1983 to 1989, then President from 1989 to 1993. Özal died in office, and was succeeded by the True Path Party leader, Süleyman Demirel.

With the 1987 Turkish constitutional referendum, despite the ANAP campaigning against it, a 10 year ban on over 200 leaders of the Republican People's Party and the Justice Party were lifted, allowing them to run for office and participate in political affairs. In 1987 Turkish general election the ANAP won 292 of the 450 seats. During this time, the ANAP leaders transformed the Turkish economy by beginning free market reforms, particularly cutting down the public area and moving towards privately owned business. In 1987, the ANAP led government filed for admission into the European Economic Community, the forerunner of the European Union. However, this attempt to enter the EEC was ended when the ANAP criticised the customs union of the EEC and decided the admission terms prescribed by the EEC to be not in the best interest of Turkey or its people.

In the 1991 Turkish general election, the ANAP lost the majority to a coalition of the True Path Party and the Social Democratic Populist Party.

After its longest run, the ANAP has had few opportunities to return to leadership. After the 1995 Turkish general election, the ANAP formed a brief coalition with the True Path Party (DYP), another centre right oriented party, that allowed their influence to return for a short period of time. Then, from July 1997 to November 1998, the ANAP was returned to the head of government with the leader Mesut Yılmaz during Turkey's first televised elections.

However, the ANAP suffered one of the largest defeats during the April 1999 elections and became the fourth largest political party in Turkey with only 14% of the votes. Following these elections, the ANAP received only 86 of 365 seats in the Parliament. They were part of the coalition government with DSP and MHP until 2002.

During the 2002 elections, they got only 5.12% of the votes and no seats in Parliament. On 5 May 2007, it was announced that the ANAP and the DYP would merge to the Democrat Party (DP). However, this failed and the ANAP announced that it would not run for the upcoming elections. From 2008 to 2009, its president was Salih Uzun. On 31 October 2009, it was merged to the Democrat Party.

+Grand National Assembly of TurkeyElection dateParty leaderNumber of votes% of votesSeats wonGovernment1983Turgut Özal7,833,14845.14%19878,704,33536.31%1991Mesut Yılmaz5,862,62324.01%19955,527,28819.65%[[True Path Party19994,122,92913.22%[[Democratic Left Party (Turkey)20021,618,4655.13%