Democratic Left Party (Turkey)

Democratic Left Party Demokratik Sol Parti
Leader	Dr. Masum Türker
Founded	1985
Headquarters	Mareşal Fevzi Çakmak Cad.17, Beşevler - Ankara, Turkey
Ideology	Kemalism Social Democracy
Political position	Centre-left
Official colours	White and blue
Parliament:	0 / 550
Municipalities:	61 / 2,919
Website
http://www.dsp.org.tr/
Politics of Turkey Political parties Elections

The Democratic Left Party (Turkish: Demokratik Sol Parti - DSP) is a Turkish political party founded on November 14, 1985, by Rahşan Ecevit.

History

1985-1999

The DSP, a social democratic oriented party, was registered on November 14, 1985 by Rahşan Ecevit, wife of Bülent Ecevit, as he was banned from political life after the 1980 coup d'état.

In 1986 Bülent Ecevit addressed the DSP convention in Ankara, declaring his support for the party. The address landed him in court for allegedly violating the political bans. The DSP was unable, however, to achieve a substantial showing in the 1986 by-elections even though Ecevit, despite his ban, continued to campaign at the party's rallies as a "guest speaker".

The political ban on Ecevit was lifted following a referendum in 1987. Later that year, Rahşan Ecevit handed over the rule of the party to her spouse. But the party failed to pass the 10% national threshold needed for a political party to have a seat in Parliament in the 1987 elections, prompting the Ecevits to step down from their positions in the party.

In 1988, Necdet Karababa was elected as the new party leader. However, the next year, Ecevit was reelected as party chairman in the party convention. Two years later in 1991, the DSP received 10.75% of the votes in the elections allowing the party to have 7 seats in the Parliament. This also meant the return of Ecevit to the Parliament after 11 years.

It was a minor party until it won 76 parliamentary seats in the December 1995 elections. Again in 1995, the party started to suffer from inner conflicts after years of serenity. The inner conflicts in the party ended with the dismissal of Erdal Kesebir, MP for Edirne and three other DSP members.

In 1997, the DSP became a partner of a three-way coalition government led by Mesut Yılmaz who at the time was the leader of the Motherland Party. Ecevit became the deputy prime minister.

In 1998, the 55th government of Turkey was toppled by a censure motion. Ecevit received the mandate to form a new government. He founded a minority government of DSP in 1999 to carry the country to general elections.

1999-2002

Boosted by the capture of the leader of the terrorist organization PKK, Abdullah Öcalan, during his premiership, Ecevit and the DSP won 22,19% of the votes in the elections of April in 1999 and took 136 of the 550 seats in the Turkish Parliament becoming the leading party. Its leader Bülent Ecevit became the Prime Minister of Turkey for the fifth time.

The coalition government accomplished many comprehensive reforms on the economy, social rights, fight against corruption, changes to 34 articles of the Constitution and EU Harmonization reforms, to name a few. Due to neglect of previous governments of long overdue reforms, an unavoidable economic crisis occurred in February 2001. However, 2 months after the crisis, the government had embarked on wide ranging economic reforms including changes to the tender law, economic social council law, unemployment insurance, the restructuring of state banks, accreditation law, law on capital markets, law on industrial zones, to name a few.

Because DSP was staunchly opposed to the invasion of Iraq by the US, a campaign to divide the DSP (with a number of MPs quitting and forming the New Turkey Party )and force a change of government in Turkey was started. When its coalition partner MHP called for early elections in the summer of 2002, ıt was forced to enter early elections, before the results of the wide economic reforms could be felt. As a result, none of the coalition parties were able to pass the 10% national threshold in the November 3 elections in 2002.

After 2002

Before the 6th Party Congress of July 25, 2004, Bülent Ecevit announced that he would step down as party leader and leave active politics. During the congress, Zeki Sezer, deputy chairman since 2001, was elected as the new Chairman of the party.

DSP entered the 2007 elections together with the CHP, Republican People's Party (CHP). The DSP-CHP alliance won 20.85% of the votes with the DSP getting 13 seats in Parliament.

In 2008, together with many other politicians joining the DSP before the local elections of 2009, Mustafa Sarıgül, the Mayor of the Istanbul district of Sisli officially joined the party.^[1]

DSP got only % 2.75 of votes in the local elections of 2009 . Zeki Sezer resigned and Masum Türker succeeded him. After Türker's succession, both Mustafa Sarıgül, the deputy of Şişli, and Rahşan Ecevit, the widow of Bülent Ecevit, resigned from the party and tried to create their own political movements.^[2]

The party constantly lost memberships especially after Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu became the leader of the Republican People's Party and restored hope among social democrats.

Leaders

• Rahşan Ecevit (1985–1987)
• Bülent Ecevit (1987–1988)
• Necdet Karababa (1988–1989)
• Bülent Ecevit (1989–2004)
• Zeki Sezer (2004–2009)
• Masum Türker (2009- )

Rahşan Ecevit and Bülent Ecevit are honorary presidents of DSP.

Notable members

Notable members and former members include:

• Bülent Ecevit, Creator
• Necdet Karababa, Former Party Leader
• Rahşan Ecevit, Founder
• Zeki Sezer, Former Party Leader
• Masum Türker, Current Party Leader
• Yılmaz Büyükerşen, Mayor of the City of Eskişehir
• Mustafa Sarıgül, Mayor of the Istanbul district of Şişli
• Seyit Torun, Mayor of the city of Ordu
• Saffet Başaran, interim Party Leader

Political view

The term Demokratik Sol (Democratic Left) was created by Bülent Ecevit in his late CHP period, as a mix of social democracy, democratic socialism, secularism and patriotism. With this term, the party established a link between universal values of the left and national-cultural heritage which makes the ideology “domestic”. In other words, contemporary social democracy is made compatible with the conditions of Turkey. With Democratic Left, Ecevit made up a new synthesis by articulating new dimensions such as democracy and socialism to the national independence movement or Kemalism. The symbol of the, white dove (Ak Güvercin) was selected to symbolize the pacifism and social accordance.

DSP approves of Turkish adhesion to the European Union, although it criticized the content of the Customs Union. During the premiership of Ecevit in 1999, Turkey became a candidate for the EU.

DSP is against the idea of a united Cyprus state.

Election results

See also: Elections in Turkey

General Elections

• 1986 Elections: 8.5%
• 1987 Elections: 8.53%
• 1991 Elections: 10.8%, 7 seats
• 1995 Elections: 14.64%, 76 seats
• 1999 Elections: 22.19%, 136 seats
• 2002 Elections: 1.22%
• 2007 Elections: 20.85%*, 13 seats. *DSP formed an alliance with CHP in 2007 and the alliance got 20.85% of total vote.
• 2011 Elections: 0.25%

Local Elections

• 1989 Elections: 9.09%, 37 municipalities
• 1994 Elections: 8.93%, 23 municipalities
• 1999 Elections: 19.28%, 189 municipalities
• 2004 Elections: 2.18%, 32 municipalities
• 2009 Elections: 2.75%, 12 municipalities

References

1. ^ http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/gundem/10432081.asp?gid=229
2. ^ http://www.cnnturk.com/2009/turkiye/11/23/dshp.kuruldu.genel.baskan.hulki.cevizoglu/552828.0/index.html

External links

• Official website