Unity Party
UNITY PARTY
Turkish political party, active in the 1960s and 1970s.
The Unity party came to be identified with the Shiʿite Alevi minority community. It changed its name to the Turkish Unity party in November of 1971, perhaps to overcome this image. With the outlawing of the Turkish Workers Party, eight of its former members were allowed to run as independents on the Unity party's election list in 1973, giving it a distinct leftist inclination. It polled only 1 percent of the vote and gained only one seat, however, compared to nearly 3 percent and eight seats in 1969. In 1977 it did even less well, failing to win any seats at all.
see also alevi; turkish workers party.
Bibliography
Weiker, Walter F. The Modernization of Turkey: From Ataturk to the Present Day. New York: Holmes and Meier, 1981.
frank tachau
