Abbreviation BTP Secretary-General Nuri Kaplan | President Haydar Baş Newspaper Yeni Mesaj | |
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Founded September 25, 2001 (2001-09-25) Headquarters Çankırı Caddesi 24, Ulus, Ankara | ||
The Independent Turkey Party (Turkish: Bağımsız Türkiye Partisi, BTP) is a nationalist and Kemalist political party founded on 25 September 2001 by Prof Dr. Haydar Baş.
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In the June 2015 general election, the BTP received 96,465 votes with no parliamentary seats.
Leaders
Bascism
Bascism is a colloquial term for the political system based on Turkey's Haydar Baş's political views. Basics involve: Euroscepticism, Turkish Nationalism, Anti-Americanism and Conservatism.
Euroscepticism
One of Bascism's central ideas is Euroscepticism. According to Baş, Turkey must not enter a crumbling Union like the European Union, since it would bring more harm to Turkey than good. Baş believes that countries in the European Union face economic challenges as only strong nations in the Union can only benefit from trade and smaller nations are often ignored when it comes to civil unrest.
Nationalism
Moreover, apart from being a Eurosceptic he is also a Turkish nationalist. Baş believes that Turkey will become stronger if it can unite its separated parties (Mainly, Islamists, Social Democrats, Minorities and Nationalists). He supports patriotic movements and believes in a 'completely unified Turkey'.
Conservatism
Baş is also known to be a devout Muslim and he is known to support the teachings of Islam.
Socialism
One of the aspects that is interesting in Baş's point of view, is that he also has socialist views when it comes to the welfare of the Turkish community. For the recent elections, if he became president, he pledged to increase the minimum wage to 5000 Turkish liras, however, in doing so he also admitted that he has to cut budgets from other important government services. Baş also wrote a book on Turkish national economy called 'The National[Turkish] Economy Model' which is the only consumption-centric analysis in the world.
Anti-Americanism
Baş also claims to have found the secret to make The United States of America collapse, which is one of the fundamental ideas that make Bascism. He is known to be Anti-American and believes that Turkey should cut off ties with America as soon as possible.