The Social Democratic People's Party () or SHP was a Turkish liberal socialist and a

social-democratic Social democracy is a social, economic, and political philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy and a gradualist, reformist, and democratic approach toward achieving social equality. In modern practice, socia ...

political party established in 2002 by Murat Karayalçın, former

Ankara Ankara is the capital city of Turkey and List of national capitals by area, the largest capital by area in the world. Located in the Central Anatolia Region, central part of Anatolia, the city has a population of 5,290,822 in its urban center ( ...

Metropolitan Mayor (1989-1993) and Foreign Minister (1994-1995). Following Karayalçın's resignation from the

Republican People's Party The Republican People's Party (RPP; , CHP ) is a Kemalism, Kemalist and Social democracy, social democratic political party in Turkey. It is the oldest List of political parties in Turkey, political party in Turkey, founded by Mustafa Kemal ...

, a number of social democrats, secular leftists, and liberal socialists came together to establish SDHP. The SDHP had most of its policies in common with the former and short-lived Populist Party with the different abbreviation. In 2004 Turkish local elections, the party came forward in an alliance with the pro-Kurdish left-wing Democratic People's Party (similar to the original HP) in the 1991 election) and the radical left Freedom and Solidarity Party. The party leader Murat Karayalçın also became a candidate for his former seat of Ankara Metropolitan Municipality in these elections, However, he lost to the incumbent mayor

Melih Gökçek İbrahim Melih Gökçek (; born 20 October 1948) is a Turkish politician who served as the mayor of Ankara from 1994 to 2017. From 1991 to 1994, he was an MP. Gökçek has won municipal elections in 1994, 1999, 2004, 2009, and was controversial ...

AK Parti The Justice and Development Party ( , AK PARTİ), abbreviated officially as AK Party in English, is a political party in Turkey self-describing as conservative-democratic. It has been the ruling party of Turkey since 2002. Third-party sources ...

. The party did not participate in the general election of 2007 to avoid fragmenting the left vote. Until then, the party held two seats in the

Grand National Assembly of Turkey The Grand National Assembly of Turkey ( ), usually referred to simply as the GNAT or TBMM, also referred to as , in Turkish, is the Unicameralism, unicameral Turkey, Turkish legislature. It is the sole body given the legislative prerogatives by ...

, two former deputies having resigned in early August 2006 from the party in, what they claimed, was a show of reaction to the lack of concern by the party management against separatist terrorism. SHP, in Congress of March 13, 2010, Equality and Democracy Party combined with the party's name and date received were mixed.

References

External links

SHP website
''In Turkish only'' 2002 establishments in Turkey 2010 disestablishments in Turkey Defunct social democratic parties in Turkey Centre-left parties Political parties disestablished in 2010 Political parties established in 2002 Secularism in Turkey {{Turkey-party-stub