Motherland Party (Turkey)

The Motherland Party, (Turkish: Anavatan Partisi, abbreviated as ANAVATAN (formerly ANAP) is a political party in Turkey. It was founded in 1983 by Turgut Özal. It was merged to Democratic Party in October 2009. In September 2011, the party was re-established. Its president is İbrahim Çelebi.

The ANAP was considered a centre-right neoliberal party which supported restrictions on the role that government can play in the economy, which favored private capital and enterprise, and which allowed for some public expressions of religion. In 1983 the elections were won by a new political organization the motherland party, led by Turgut Ozal. Although the motherland party was composed of a potentially disruptive mixture of Islamic revivalist and secular liberals, Ozal was able to form a majority government, and for the time being democracy was restored and politics was back in the hands of the people

History

In the National Assembly elections on 6 November 1983, the Populist Party and the Motherland party were allowed to run for office. The ANAP won 212 of the 450 available seats and Turgut Özal, the leader of the party, became the Prime Minister. 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. Ozal died in office, and was succeeded by the True Path Party leader, Suleyman Demirel.