Nation Party (Turkey, 1948)

The Nation Party (Turkish: Millet Partisi) was a conservative and nationalistic political party developed as a third option within the then bipartisan system in Turkey. It lasted from 1948 until 1953, when it was outlawed.

The Nation Party was founded on July 19, 1948 by former Prime Minister and Chief of Staff Fevzi Çakmak, Osman Bölükbaşı, Enis Akaygen, Yusuf Hikmet Bayur, Mustafa Kentli, Osman Nuri Köni, Kenan Öner and Sadık Aldoğan. The founders were from a conservative clique within the Democrat Party (Demokrat Parti). One of the reasons for their establishment of the party was the claim that the Democrat Party was ineffective as opposition to the Republican People's Party (CHP), the Turkish People was trapped between two political alternatives and a third alternative with a nationalistic ideology was necessary. Fevzi Çakmak was appointed as the honorary leader of the party.

The Nation Party did not participate in the 1948 elections. Before the 1950 elections, on April 8, Fevzi Çakmak made an announcement claiming that Republican People's Party's oppression was getting fiercer. Two days later, on April 10, he died from complications following a prostatectomy. At the elections on May 14, 1950, at which the Democrat Party had won 55% of the votes, it received 3.11% of the votes (250.414 votes) to win one seat, and one of the founders, Osman Bölükbaşı became an MP.

In 1954, before the elections on May 2, the Nation Party was shut down and declared outlaw on grounds of "anti-Laïcité" politics. The founders of the party, led by Osman Bölükbaşı subsequently formed the Republican Nation Party (Cumhuriyetçi Millet Partisi) and won 5 seats in the parliament. All these five MPs were from Kırşehir, the hometown of Bölükbaşı. On June 24, 1957, the parliament stripped the Republican Nation Party leader Osman Bölükbaşı of his parliamentary immunity on grounds of "insulting the incorporeal personality of the parliament" and Bölükbaşı was arrested on July 2, on a court decision, which was abolished by another court order on July 23. Two days later, on July 25, Bölükbaşı was once again arrested. When he won a seat at the elections on October 27, along with three more from his party, Bölükbaşı was released on immunity.

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