Alternative Party (Turkey)

Alternative Party Alternatif Parti

Leader	Süleyman Yağcıoğlu
Founded	1998
Dissolved	15 March 2015
Preceded by	National Association Party
Succeeded by	First Party
Headquarters	Ankara, Turkey
Ideology	Liberalism Fiscal conservatism Pro-Europeanism
Political position	Right-wing
International affiliation	None
Colours	Red and yellow
Website
http://alternatifparti.org.tr
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The Alternative Party (Turkish: Alternatif Parti, officially abbreviated as A.P., also as ALP, ALPA or mistakenly AL PARTİ) was a right-wing political party in Turkey founded in 1998. It is, as claimed by its leader Süleyman Yağcıoğlu, the successor to the Motherland Party (ANAP), which was in government between 1983 and 1991. The party was known as the National Association Party until 2008, where it changed its name to Alternative Party after the ANAP announced that it would merge with the Democrat Party (DP).

The party's leader Süleyman Yağcıoğlu strongly endorses the ANAP's founder and two-term Prime Minister Turgut Özal, who also served as the 8th President of Turkey. Noting that former leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also endorsed Özal during the 2014 local election campaign, the ALP withdrew from the election and supported the AKP.^[1]

The party favours devolution to local authorities, lower taxes and European Union membership. The ALP further advocates the lowering of the parliamentary threshold during general elections from 10% to 2% and also the scrapping of the Political Parties law in order to increase inner-party democracy. The party is against politics that involves language, religious or ethnic discrimination.^[2]

In March 2015, the party took the decision to dissolve during a congress and to change its name to First Party (İlk Parti).

History

Founded in 1998, the National Association Party (UBP) was first led by Semih Tufan Gülaltay, who was convicted in 2005 for murder, forgery and also for possessing membership of the True Path Party while serving as the UBP leader. After he stepped down by order of the Court of Cassation in 2005, Gencehan Tunay was elected leader. He was eventually succeeded by İlker Bircan, who changed the party's name to Alternative Party and also adopted a more liberal ideology in contrast to the UBP's Turkish nationalism.^[3] The current leader of the party is Süleyman Yağcıoğlu, who was an ANAP Member of Parliament elected in the 1983 general election.

Logo controversy

The ALP was involved in a logo controversy in the run-up to the 2014 local elections, where several AKP activists and journalised confused the party with another party with a similar name, the Alternative and Change Party (ADP). The ADP frequently uses the abbreviation AL PARTİ and adopts a logo very similar to that of the AKP, which uses the abbreviation AK PARTİ. The ALP, which decided to not contest the elections and support the AKP instead, was thus accused of attempting to mislead AKP voters during the election in order to increase their own vote, since many observers initially mistook the ADP's logo for that of the ALP. The ALP's logo is a map of Turkey with a sun rising from behind, which does not resemble any other party logo.^[4]^[5]

References

Political parties in Turkey

Parliament	Justice and Development Party (317) Republican People's Party (133) Nationalist Movement Party (40) Peoples' Democratic Party (59)

Not represented in the parliament	Alternative and Change Party Centre Party Communist Party Conservative Ascension Party Democratic Party Democratic Left Party Democratic Progress Party Democratic Regions Party Electronic Democracy Party Felicity Party First Party Freedom and Socialism Party Freedom and Solidarity Party Free Cause Party Gezi Party Great Union Party Green Left Party Homeland Party Independent Turkey Party Labour Party Liberal Democratic Party Motherland Party Nation Party Nation and Justice Party National Party National Struggle Party Patriotic Party People's Ascent Party People's Communist Party of Turkey Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party Rights and Equality Party Rights and Freedoms Party Rights and Justice Party Social Reconciliation Reform and Development Party Socialist Democracy Party Socialist Party of Refoundation Socialist Party of the Oppressed Young Party Ottoman Party

Portal:Politics List of political parties Politics of Turkey

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