Young Party
Genç Parti |
|
---|---|
Abbreviation | GENÇPARTİ |
Chairperson | vacant |
Founder of the Youth Party |
Cem Uzan |
Founded | 26 November 1992 10 July 2002 (as Young Party) 23 August 2002 (merged) |
(as YDP)
Headquarters | Ankara, Turkey |
Membership (2017) | 55522 |
Ideology |
Populism Liberalism Republicanism Secularism |
Political position | Centre |
Colours | White, Red |
Slogan | Ezilenler iktidar olacak (The oppressed will come to power) |
Anthem | Gençlik Marşı (Youth Anthem) |
The Young Party (Turkish: Genç Parti, GENÇPARTİ) is a populist and liberal political party in Turkey. The GENÇPARTİ does not have a chairperson officially.
Cem Uzan entered politics 90 days before the 2002 elections. Young Party was not eligible to enter the elections and Yeniden Doğuş Partisi (YDP) was a small party which was eligible to enter elections. So, money was poured by Uzan to take over YDP by delegate elections. In the legislative elections on 3 November 2002, the party got 7.5% of the popular vote and no seats. It was considered as success for a political party to get 7.5% of the vote at the first election entered.
After the 2002 elections TMSF assumed ownership of Uzan's companies and later sold them. Some saw this as an attempt of the current parliament to stop Cem Uzan and his Young Party. Young Party only won 3.3% of the vote in Turkish general election, 2007 and its candidates were not elected as members of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Compared with the 2002 elections, this result means a loss of 4.22% of the public vote.
Cem Uzan was the owner of Star TV and Star newspaper and used his newspaper and TV station to the best of his ability to promote his party, which is why he has been labelled a Turkish version of Silvio Berlusconi. When he was under investigation, he used advertising space between the first and second halves of Champions League football games to launch political assaults upon his opponents. After his tough speech about current Prime Minister (Recep Tayyip Erdogan), TMSF assumed ownership of his companies and later sold them.