A group of former nationalists announced the foundation of a new party. It may be the 152nd or 151st political party of Türkiye, as official data often fluctuates due to the sheer number of parties. Some remain inactive immediately after their establishment and are occasionally dropped from the official register of parties eligible to run in elections.
Key Party’s founder, Yavuz Ağıralioğlu, hopes to tap into what he calls a new groundswell in Turkish politics dominated by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP). Former lawmaker Ağıralioğlu left the government Good Party (IP), where he served as deputy chair after it joined a six-party opposition bloc’s decision to endorse then CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu as a presidential candidate in the 2023 elections despite the latter's outreach to a party linked to a terrorist group. His new party includes former IP names as well as the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), whose former members went to find IP.
Ağıralioğlu entered ATO Congresium in the capital, Ankara, on Monday amid applause from a large crowd arrived from around Türkiye, hours after party officials formally presented their application for the formation of the party to the Interior Ministry per legal procedure.
In a lengthy speech, Ağıralioğlu sought to rally people “disillusioned by political greed” while peppering his speech with references to well-known victims of terrorism and with nationalist undertones.
Earlier, Ayhan Erel, a former IP founder who serves as the Key Party’s chairman in charge of branches, told reporters that they picked Oct. 28 as it was also the date Mustafa Kemal Atatürk announced his intention to declare Republic of Türkiye 101 years ago. A large poster of Atatürk and a huge Turkish flag adorned the stage where Ağıralioğlu addressed supporters.
The party’s intricate ties to IP are reflected in its name. Like IP, which alternately called itself İYİ (Good) Party or shortened it to IP, Key (Anahtar in Turkish) apparently wants to confuse the electorate with the alternative name A Party as its followers tend to use, too. Erel said people should not dwell too much on the name but on the “actions” of their party. “We will fill the opposition void in Türkiye,” he confidently told reporters. Erel added that they witnessed the groundswell “stronger than the one that carried AK Party to power in 2001 or Motherland Party (ANAP) in 1983.”
Though all members appeared confident of the party's future success (which will have to wait another four years to compete in any election), Key will face fierce competition against others scrambling for nationalist votes. These include IP itself as well as the Victory Party (ZP) of Ümit Özdağ, another former member of MHP who seeks to attract nationalist votes in the wake of MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli’s outreach to jailed terrorist leader Abdullah Öcalan. ZP claimed a rising number of applications in the past weeks, while Key Party released footage of “thousands” arriving at ATO Congresium and “convoys” of supporters heading to Ankara from Istanbul and other cities.
