Nationalist Movement Party
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Nationalist Movement Party
Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi |
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| Abbreviation | MHP |
| President | Devlet Bahçeli |
| General Secretary | İsmet Büyükataman |
| Founder | Alparslan Türkeş |
| Founded | February 9, 1969 |
| Preceded by | Republican Villagers Nation Party |
| Headquarters | Ehlibeyt Mh. Ceyhun Atuf Kansu Cd No:128, 06105 Ankara, Turkey |
| Paramilitary wing | Grey Wolves (unofficial) |
| Membership (2014) | 407,138 |
| Ideology |
Turkish nationalism Pan-Turkism Right-wing populism Euroscepticism Ultranationalism |
| Political position | Far-right |
| Colours | Red, white |
| Slogan | Ülkenin Geleceğine Oy Ver (roughly, "Vote for the country's future") |
| Parliament: |
39 / 550
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| Metropolitan municipalities: |
3 / 30
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| District municipalities: |
166 / 1,351
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| Provincial councillors: |
174 / 1,251
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| Party flag | |
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| Website | |
| www |
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The Nationalist Movement Party (alternatively translated as Nationalist Action Party; Turkish: Milliyetçi Hareket Partisi, MHP) is a Turkish far-right political party that adheres to Turkish ultranationalism and Euroscepticism.
The party was first formed in 1969 by former colonel Alparslan Türkeş, who had previously become leader of the far-right Republican Villagers Nation Party (CKMP) in 1965. The party mainly followed a neo-fascist and ultranationalist political agenda throughout the latter half of the 20th century, but later moderated its views under the leadership of Devlet Bahçeli, who took over after Türkeş's death in 1997. The party's youth wing is the Grey Wolves (Bozkurtlar) organization, which is also known as the "Nationalist Hearths" (Ülkü Ocakları). Türkeş, who is widely revered by Turkish nationalists as the founder of the idealist movement, is commonly referred to as "Chieftain" (Başbuğ) by his supporters.
Alparslan Türkeş founded the party after criticising the Republican People's Party (CHP) for moving too far away from the nationalist principles of their founder Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, famously claiming that he would have not founded the MHP had the CHP not deviated from Atatürk's ideology. Although Türkeş failed to win any elections, the MHP won enough seats in the 1973 and 1977 general election to take part in two right-wing coalition governments led by Justice Party (AP) leader Süleyman Demirel. Türkeş served as the Deputy Prime Minister of Turkey between 1975 and 1977 in what was referred to as the First Nationalist Front government and again between 1977 and 1978 in the Second Nationalist Front. After Türkeş's death and the election of Devlet Bahçeli as his successor, the party moderated its views and adopted a more mainstream nationalist agenda. The party under Bahçeli's leadership won 18% of the vote and 129 seats in the 1999 general election, its best ever result, coming second only to the Democratic Left Party (DSP). Bahçeli subsequently became Deputy Prime Minister after entering a coalition with the DSP and the Motherland Party (ANAP), though his calls for an early election resulted in the government's collapse in 2002. In the 2002 general election, the MHP fell below the 10% election threshold and lost all of its parliamentary representation after the newly formed Justice and Development Party (AKP) won a landslide victory.
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Wikipedia