Democrat Party (Turkey, 1946–61) Democrat Party (Turkey, 1946–61) The Democratic Party (Turkish: Demokrat Parti, DP for short) was a Turkish moderately right-wing political party, and the country's third legal opposition party, after the Liberal Republican Party (Serbest Cumhuriyet Fırkası) established by Ali Fethi Okyar in 1930, and the National Development Party (Milli Kalkınma Partisi) established by Nuri Demirağ in 1945. Founded and led by Celâl Bayar, it was the first of the opposition parties to rise to power, de-seating the Republican People's Party (Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi) during the national elections of 1950 and ending Turkey's one party era. The party facilitated the resurgence of
Cumhuriyet making a stand against the AKP government's mounting pressure. Shortly thereafter, 's former editor-in-chief Can Dündar and the newspaper's Ankara representative Erdem Gül were arrested facing sentences up to life imprisonment. During the last decade, the newspaper's staff has also been physically attacked, with the 2008 molotov attack against "Cumhuriyet"'s headquarters in Istanbul's Şişli district being particularly significant. Also notable is the attempted assassination of Can Dündar in 2016. "Cumhuriyet" contributors such as Uğur Mumcu, Bahriye Üçok, Ahmet Taner Kışlalı, Muammer Aksoy, Ümit Kaftancıoğlu, Onat Kutlar, and Cavit Orhan Tütengil had been assassinated in the past. By the end of