Democratic Party in Turkish political life (1970-1980)

This dissertation aims to introduce Democratic Party (DP) which was an active political party between 1970 and 1980. The dissertation includes four main sections and the introduction: the introduction section gives background information on political, social and economic life in Turkey after 27 May 1960 until Democratic Party was founded. The first section presents founders of Democratic Party and the process of how the party was founded, its regulations, its program as well as the parties' ideas on politic, society and economy. The second section deals with the influence of 12 March Memorandum and its governments on political ideas of Democratic Party. In addition, this section analyzes the attitude of Democratic Party during the crisis which appeared after 14 September 1973 election period. The third section is about Democratic Party Congresses and elections that the party run in. The last section is related to parliaments members of Democratic Party between 1973 and 1977 and its parliament activities. Democratic Party Was founded in 18 December 1970 by 69 people 26 of whom were expelled from Justice Party (JP) and the party's historical background was afore-mentioned in the introduction section. Actually, there are two main sources which helped Democratic Party appear in history: the problems caused by 27 May 1960 when the government was overthrown by the army and Süleyman Demirel's ( the head of the Justice Party) policy on how to make Justice Party associated with his name before and after 1969 election period. Democratic Party's process of being founded, its regulations, its program as well as the partie's ideas on politic, society and economy are discussed in section one by claiming that Democratic Party tried to follow up with the principles of Democrat Party and tried to replace Justice Party in terms of political domains. Democratic Party with a claim that it supports liberal political views turned out to be just the copy cat of Justice Party from which Democratic Party took its root. 12 March Memorandum and its governments' impact on political ideas of Dem-ocratic Party, the attitude of Democratic Party during the crisis which appeared after 14 September 1973 election period are dealt with in section two. As a result, 12 March Memorandum which broke out just after three months after Democratic Party was founded prevented the party's physical development. In addition, 12 March Memoran-dum Governments ignored the presence of Democratic Party (DP) in political life. Morever, the attitude of Democratic Party towards Demirel was anti-Demirel discourse emphasis during the crisis which appeared after 14 September 1973 electon period. Lastly, attitudes of Ferruh Bozbeyli as a weak leader made the voters of Democratic Party feel less popular about Democratic Party. Instead, voters favored Justice Party. Democratic Party Congresses has had four main congresses. The topics of these congresses and the results of local and national elections that the Democratic Party run in were given in section three. The fourth and the last section dealt with fourthy five parliaments members of Democratic Party who managed to take role in the parliament and their its parliament activities after Septembers 1973 election. Keywords : 27 May, Justice Party, Süleyman Demirel, 12 March, Democratic Party, Ferruh Bozbeyli, Democratic Right.