The Social Democratic Populist Party or Social Democratic Popular Party (, abbreviated SHP) was a political party in Turkey that formed after the fusion of the Social Democracy Party (''Sosyal Demokrasi Partisi'',

SODEP The Social Democracy Party (, SODEP) of Turkey was one of the two main parties of Turkey in early 1980s but later on merged with the People's Party to form the Social Democratic Populist Party (SHP) in 1985. Ideology Although SODEP, which exi ...

) of

Erdal İnönü Erdal İnönü (6 June 1926 – 31 October 2007) was a Turkish theoretical physicist and politician who served as the interim prime minister of Turkey between 16 May and 25 June 1993. He also served as the deputy prime minister of Turkey from 1 ...

and the People's Party of

Aydın Güven Gürkan Aydın Güven Gürkan (May 10, 1941 – January 22, 2006) was a Turkish academic and politician. Early life Gürkan was born in Elazığ on 10 May 1941. In 1963, he graduated from the Faculty of Political Sciences in Ankara University. In 1970, ...

in 1985.

History

The Social Democracy Party (''Sosyal Demokrasi Partisi'',

) of

and the People's Party of

were founded in 1983 with the revival of democracy after the military coup of 1980. In 1985, the Social Democracy Party and the People's Party merged to create the Social Democratic Populist Party. In the 1989 local elections, the SHP emerged as the strongest party with 27.8 percent of the vote, winning in six metropolitan areas, 39 provinces, and 283 districts. The

Kurdish Kurdish may refer to: *Kurds or Kurdish people *Kurdish language ** Northern Kurdish (Kurmanji) **Central Kurdish (Sorani) **Southern Kurdish ** Laki Kurdish *Kurdish alphabets *Kurdistan, the land of the Kurdish people which includes: **Southern ...

question placed the party under serious strain as the MPs

Ahmet Türk Ahmet Türk (born 2 July 1942, in Derik, Turkey, Derik, Mardin Province, Mardin, Turkey) is a Kurds in Turkey, Kurdish politician from the Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (DEM Party). He has been a member of the Grand National Assembly of T ...

, Mehmet Ali Eren, Mahmut Alinak, Kenan Sönmez, Ismail Hakki Önal, Adnan Ekmen and Salik Sumer were of Kurdish origin. This was at a time when use of the

Kurdish language Kurdish (, , ) is a Northwestern Iranian languages, Northwestern Iranian language or dialect continuum, group of languages spoken by Kurds in the region of Kurdistan, namely in southeast Turkish Kurdistan, Turkey, northern Iraqi Kurdistan, Ira ...

was forbidden in public and private life. Some of these MPs wanted to take part in the Kurdish Conference in Paris in 1989, to which Chairman İnönü wanted to agree. But after it emerged that representatives of the

Kurdistan Workers' Party The Kurdistan Workers' Party, or the PKK, isDespite the PKK's 12th Congress announcing plans for total organisational dissolution, the PKK has not yet been dissolved de facto or de jure. a Kurds, Kurdish militant political organization and armed ...

(PKK) could also take part, participation was forbidden. The seven took part anyway and all were expelled from the party, even though the PKK was not present at the congress and in fact protested against it. As a result,

, 12 other MPs of the SHP, dozens of regional party administrators and 3000 party members resigned from the SHP. As a result, People's Labour Party (HEP) was formed in 1990. Nevertheless the party was one of the first parties to acknowledge that the

Kurdish Question Kurdish nationalism () is a nationalist political movement which asserts that Kurds are a nation and espouses the creation of an independent Kurdistan from Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Turkey. Early Kurdish nationalism had its roots in the Ottoman ...

was not just an issue of

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of violence against non-combatants to achieve political or ideological aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violence during peacetime or in the context of war aga ...

. In the South Eastern Report published by the party in 1990 the problems of not acknowledging the Kurds as a distinct ethnic group were noticed. It was emphasized the Kurds should be able to express their Kurdish identity and legal barriers prohibiting this should be lifted. During the

1991 Turkish general election General elections were held in Turkey on 20 October 1991, to elect members to the 19th Grand National Assembly. It was the first by the ruling Motherland Party to be contested without its founding leader, Turgut Özal, who had become Turkish ...

, the SHP formed an

electoral alliance An electoral alliance (also known as a bipartisan electoral agreement, electoral pact, electoral agreement, electoral coalition or electoral bloc) is an association of political parties or individuals that exists solely to stand in elections. E ...

with the pro-Kurdish HEP. After the 1991 general election, the SHP became a partner in the coalition government and İnönü became deputy prime minister (11/20). In the coalition agreement, the SHP insisted on lifting the ban on pre-1980 parties which were dissolved by the military government. The pre-1980 parties were authorized on 19 June 1992. This was risky for the SHP. Shortly after legalization, a group of SHP MPs resigned from the party and reformed 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 ...

(CHP), Erdal İnönü's father's party (most party members were pre-1980 CHP members). The SHP and the CHP, two similar parties, co-existed for a while. On 6 June 1993, İnönü announced that he was planning to resign and

Murat Karayalçın Murat Karayalçın (born 26 October 1943) is a prominent Turkish politician. He is a former foreign minister (1994–1995), deputy prime minister, and a former mayor of Ankara (1989–1993). He is the founder (in 2002) of the new SHP. Of Hamshe ...

was elected as the new president of the party on 11 September 1993. Then the CHP and the SHP agreed to merge on 29 January 1995. Former foreign minister

Hikmet Çetin Hikmet Çetin (born 10 August 1937) is a Turkish retired politician of Kurdish origin. He held various national posts during his career, including Foreign Affairs Minister (1991–1994) and Speaker of the Grand National Assembly (1997–1999). ...

(SHP) became the interim chairman and the merged party chose the name of CHP after İnönü's suggestion. In June 2024, the party was re-founded with an unknown name.

Leaders

* 1985-1986

* 1986-1993

* 1993-1995

* 2024 - Burak Çelik

References

{{Authority control Defunct social democratic parties in Turkey Defunct political parties in Turkey Political parties established in 1985 1985 establishments in Turkey Political parties disestablished in 1995 1995 disestablishments in Turkey Former member parties of the Socialist International Secularism in Turkey