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Patriotic Party Vatan Partisi | |
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| Abbreviation | Vatan Partisi(official) VP(unofficial) |
| President | Doğu Perinçek |
| Secretary-General | Özgür Bursalı |
| Founded | 10 July 1992 (1992-07-10) (asWorkers' Party) 15 February 2015 (2015-02-15) (rebranding) |
| Preceded by | Workers' Party |
| Headquarters | Toros Sokak 9, 06430 Sıhhiye,Çankaya,Ankara |
| Newspaper | Aydınlık |
| Think tank | National Strategy Center (USMER) |
| Youth wing | Vanguard Youth |
| Women's wing | Vanguard Women |
| Membership(2025) |  13,323[1] |
| Ideology | Kemalism Ulusalcılık Eurasianism Hard Euroscepticism Turkish nationalism |
| Political position | Left-wing[2] |
| Colors | Red White[3] |
| Grand National Assembly | 0 / 600 |
| Metropolitan municipalities | 0 / 30 |
| District municipalities | 0 / 1,351 |
| Provincial councilors | 0 / 1,251 |
| Municipal Assemblies | 0 / 20,498 |
| Website | |
| vatanpartisi.org.tr | |
ThePatriotic Party[a] (Turkish:Vatan Partisi,VP) is apolitical party inTurkey. The Patriotic Party describes itself as a "vanguard party"[5] and its chairman,Doğu Perinçek, described the party in 2015 as a bringing together ofsocialists,revolutionaries,Turkish nationalists andKemalists. The party is strongly pro-China and pro-Russia as well as anti-American. The party alsosupports PresidentErdoğan and what it considers to be his anti-imperialist policies.
The political tradition of the Patriotic Party is based on theLuminosity (Aydınlık) movement. The party was founded in 1992 asWorkers' Party. In 2015, after a long-time political repositioning period, the Workers' Party changed its name to "Patriotic Party" during the extraordinary congress.[6] Like the Workers' Party, the Patriotic Party is led by Doğu Perinçek. The party's founding members include formerarmy generals who had been pursued during theErgenekon trials and theSledgehammer case, though both cases have been thrown out since then.[7]
The party is closely aligned with the nationalist ideology namedulusalcılık and has been described asleft-wing,[2] andleft-wing nationalist.[8] It officially supportsKemalism.[9] Article 1 of the Basic Principles section of the party charter states that "The Patriotic Party is the vanguard party fighting for the common national power of the Turkish working class, peasants, artisans and craftsmen, public employees, intellectual laborers, national industrialists and merchants. The Patriotic Party embraces the nationalist, pro-people and socialist accumulation of theTurkish Revolution under a single discipline on the basis of the Party's charter and program."
The party also supports the rulingPeople's Alliance, which isright-wing andconservative in nature, though it is not a member.[10] Perinçek has stated that "[r]epublicans, nationalists, populists, socialists and revolutionaries all unite in one party, the Patriotic Party".[11] According to its charter, the party advocates for a "national democratic revolution", calls for "ideological independence" and organizes itself on the basis ofdemocratic centralism.[5]
The party is strongly pro-Russia[12] and pro-China[13] andanti-American because of itsEurasianist ideology.[14] It is also strongly anti-NATO and advocates for Turkey's departure from it.[12] It is alsoEurosceptic and against Turkey's EU candidacy.[14] The Patriotic Party supports strong relations with countries such asIran[15] andNorth Korea.[16] It also has strong party-to-party relations with parties such as theChinese Communist Party[17] and theWorkers' Party of Korea.[18]
The party strongly opposes the currentTurkish intervention in Syria and promoted better ties with theAssad government.[19] In 2022, the party and its leader,Doğu Perinçek, openly supportedVladimir Putin and the2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[20][21] saying that "it is the weapon that Russia is currently using that brings peace and tranquility".[21]
The Patriotic Party is affiliated with a number of news publications includingAydınlık,Ulusal Kanal andBilim ve Ütopya.
| Election date | Leader | Votes | % | Seats |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| June 2015 | Doğu Perinçek | 161,616 | 0.35% | 0 / 550 |
| November 2015 | 118,803 | 0.25% | 0 / 550 | |
| 2018 | 114,872 | 0.23% | 0 / 600 | |
| 2023 | 53,339 | 0.10% | 0 / 600 |
| Election | Candidate | Votes | % | Outcome |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | .jpg) Doğu Perinçek | 98,955 | 0.20% | 6th |
| 2023 | EndorsedErdoğan in the Second Round | |||
| Election | Party leader | Mayoral election votes | Percentage of votes | Municipal councillor votes | Percentage of votes | Number of municipalities | Number of councillors | Map |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Doğu Perinçek |
In particular, Özdağ called on Erdoğan and his ally Nationalist Movement (MHP) Party leader Devlet Bahçeli to break with Doğu Perinçek, the leader of the radical left-wing Vatan Party (Homeland Party), who is known in Turkey for his pro-China support.
The 2017 referendum cooperation with the MHP, was transformed into the People's Alliance for the presidential election in 2018, and despite the differences that arose prior to the 2019 local elections that speculated a possible split, its ultra-conservative twist was undersigned by the support 26 from the nationalist left wing Vatan Party, the pro-military AS Party and the conservative Motherland Party.
Perinçek, on the other side, is the candidate for the leftist Patriotic Party (VP), the successor of the socialist and workers' party.
In today's Turkey it is Doğu Perinçek's "Vatan Partisi" ("Homeland Party", or "Patriotic Party"), which expressly views itself in the tradition of left Kemalism. Perinçek himself was also a member of the 1968 movement and co-founder of the "Devrimci İşçi-Köylü Partisi" (Revolutionary Workers and Peasants Party of Turkey, 1971). A quick search in the internet reveals that the Vatan Partisi is alternately labelled as a left-nationalist, left-Kemalist, or ultranationalist party.
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