Background

Democrat Party which was the ruling party between 1950-1960 was closed by the military rule. In 1961 and 1965 elections most of ex Democrat Party adherents supported Justice Party

Justice Party (Turkey)

The Justice Party was a Turkish political party prominent in the 1960s and 1970s. A descendant of the Democrat Party, the AP was dominated by Süleyman Demirel, who served six times as prime minister, and was in office at the time of the military coup on September 12, 1980...

, a party founded in 1961. After 1965 elections Justice Party came to power. But following 1969 elections in which Justice Party was again successful, tension between the liberal and conservative wings of the party became evident. The conservative wing which had the support of former Democrat Party leaders, broke away from Justice Party and founded Democratic Party .

History of Democratic Party

DP was founded on 18 December 1970. The former parliament speaker Ferruh Bozbeyli was the chairman. Saadettin Bilgiç as well as the relatives of the former Democrat Party members were among the other important MPs. The main competitors of the party were Justice Party and National Salvation Party

National Salvation Party

The National Salvation Party was an Islamist political party in Turkey founded on 11 October 1972 as the successor of the banned National Order Party . The party was led by Necmettin Erbakan...

 (or its predecessor National Order Party

National Order Party

National Order Party was a Islamist political party in Turkey, which adopted the National View ideology. It was founded on 26 January 1970 by Necmettin Erbakan...

). In the 1973 elections, Democratic Parti received 11.9 % of votes and sent 45 representatives to the lower house of the parliament. (It was the third party in terms of the vote percentage and fourth party in terms of the number of represenatatives.) Republican People's Party (CHP)

Republican People's Party (Turkey)

The Republican People's Party is a centre-left Kemalist political party in Turkey. It is the oldest political party of Turkey and is currently Main Opposition in the Grand National Assembly. The Republican People's Party describes itself as "a modern social-democratic party, which is faithful to...

 was the winner. But CHP needed coalition partners to form the government. DP refused to form the coalition with CHP. Later in 1975 DP refused to participate in another coalition government led by Justice Party (4th government of Süleyman Demirel

Süleyman Demirel

Sami Süleyman Gündoğdu Demirel, better known as Süleyman Demirel , is a Turkish politician who served as Prime Minister seven times and was the ninth President of Turkey.-Life:Demirel was born in İslamköy, a town in Isparta Province...

) . However after this last decision, the big names in the party returned to Justice Party on 9 March 1975. In the 1977 elections Democratic Party received only 1.1 % of votes. On 4 May 1980 the party dissolved itself.