Abbreviation GENÇPARTİ Founder of
the Youth Party Cem Uzan Membership (2017) 55522 | Chairperson vacant Headquarters Ankara, Turkey | |
 | ||
Founded 26 November 1992 (1992-11-26) (as YDP)
10 July 2002 (2002-07-10) (as Young Party)
23 August 2002 (2002-08-23) (merged) | ||
The Young Party (Turkish: Genç Parti, GENÇPARTİ) is a populist and liberal political party in Turkey. The GENÇPARTİ does not have a chairperson officially.
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2002 elections
Cem Uzan entered politics 90 days before the 2002 elections. Young Party was not eligible to enter the elections and Yeniden Doğuş Partisi (YDP) was a small party which was eligible to enter elections. So, money was poured by Uzan to take over YDP by delegate elections. In the legislative elections on 3 November 2002, the party got 7.5% of the popular vote and no seats. It was considered as success for a political party to get 7.5% of the vote at the first election entered.
2007 elections
After the 2002 elections TMSF assumed ownership of Uzan's companies and later sold them. Some saw this as an attempt of the current parliament to stop Cem Uzan and his Young Party. Young Party only won 3.3% of the vote in Turkish general election, 2007 and its candidates were not elected as members of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Compared with the 2002 elections, this result means a loss of 4.22% of the public vote.
Media power of the party
Cem Uzan was the owner of Star TV and Star newspaper and used his newspaper and TV station to the best of his ability to promote his party, which is why he has been labelled a Turkish version of Silvio Berlusconi. When he was under investigation, he used advertising space between the first and second halves of Champions League football games to launch political assaults upon his opponents. After his tough speech about current Prime Minister (Recep Tayyip Erdogan), TMSF assumed ownership of his companies and later sold them.
Some party members
Other than Cem Uzan, Turkish arabesk star İbrahim Tatlıses, parliament member Emin Şirin, former parliament member Adil Asirimand and some new politicians like Kaan Aytug, Cenk Aktan are some of the recognisable members of the Young Party.