Two small opposition parties in Turkey established by former allies of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan are negotiating a merger, according to one party leader.
Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) leader Ali Babacan announced that discussions are ongoing regarding a potential merger with Ahmet Davutoğlu’s Future Party (GP) as part of efforts to create a powerful opposition bloc to challenge Erdoğan and his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Both Babacan and Davutoğlu are former AKP heavyweights who served in senior government posts but who parted ways with the party and established rival parties in 2020 and 2019, respectively.
Babacan on Wednesday told the pro-opposition Halk TV that talks were underway regarding a potential merger with the GP. He added that they are also considering whether a new and stronger opposition group could be formed by including members from other political parties in parliament.
“Those who love this country, who love this homeland, who are shaped by the values of this nation and who believe in the values of our republic need to come together. … I say, let’s unite. Let’s strive to solve this country’s problems with greater unity, both politically and in parliament,” the DEVA leader said.
Babacan said his party and the opposition alliance they aim to form will target the votes of religious and conservative people dissatisfied with Erdoğan and his AKP as well as those who previously supported center-right leaders such as former prime minister Adnan Menderes and former president Turgut Özal as well as voters and young people in the center-right who are looking for alternatives.
Both DEVA and the GP were members of the “Table of Six,” formed by their inclusion and that of two other small parties in the Nation Alliance, established by the nationalist İYİ (Good) Party and the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) before the 2018 general election.
The opposition bloc dissolved after it failed to secure the victory of its presidential candidate, former CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, against incumbent president Erdoğan in the May 2023 presidential election.