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
Bahá'í Faith in Turkey those "whose killing is necessary." Still in 2001, two Bahá'í university professors at Sivas' Cumhuriyet University faced expulsion. in 2008, a Bahá'í was appointed dean of the Science and Letters Faculty of the Middle East Technical University. The Turkish government supported the declaration of the Presidency of the European Union when he "denounced" the trial of Iranian Bahá'ís announced in February 2009. Because the religion is proscribed there can be no official counts of membership. Estimates by others range from 10,000 to 20,000. The Association of Religion Data Archives (relying on World Christian Encyclopedia) estimated some 21,000 Bahá'ís in Turkey