When the pre-election merger failed between the two center-right parties, Motherland Party (ANAP) and True Path Party (DYP) under the new name Democrat Party (DP), Mehmet Agar, Chairman of DP ran alone in the July 22 elections. As soon as the elections results appeared in the media  –showing only 5.5% of the general vote for DP – Mehmet Agar announced his resignation as the chairman of the party. According to analysts, it is the absence of a strong center-right that traditionally is the choice of Turkish voters, what brought about AKP’s rise by 13% in the elections.

Agar’s resignation has now left the door open for former prime ministers Tansu Ciller (DYP) and Mesut Yilmaz (ANAP) to step in and fix Turkey’s collapsed center-right. Mesut Yilmaz who ran as an independent won a seat from Rize (Turkey), and may form a parliamentary group, attracting some of the former ANAP members from both the AKP and CHP lists.

Sources: Zaman, Hurriyet, Turkey, July 24, 2007