Mustafa Kemal Atatürk system. The one-party regime was established "de facto" in 1925 after the adoption of the 1924 constitution. The only political party of the GNA was the "Peoples Party", founded by Mustafa Kemal on 9 September 1923. (But according to the party culture the foundation date was the opening day of Sivas Congress on 4 September 1919). On 10 November 1924 it was renamed "Cumhuriyet Halk Fırkası" or Republican People's Party (the word "fırka" was replaced by the word "parti" in 1935). Abolition of the Caliphate was an important dimension in Mustafa Kemal's drive to reform the political system and to
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