Technology Development Party

The Technology Development Party (Turkish: Teknoloji Kalkınma Partisi) is a conservative political party in Turkey founded in 1998. It is, as claimed by its leader Süleyman Yağcıoğlu, the successor to the Motherland Party (ANAP), which was in government between 1983 and 1991. The party was known as the National Association Party until 2008, where it changed its name to Alternative Party after the ANAP announced that it would merge with the Democrat Party (DP). The party's former leader Süleyman Yağcıoğlu strongly endorsed the ANAP's founder and two-term Prime Minister Turgut Özal, who also served as the 8th President of Turkey. Noting that former leader of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) Recep Tayyip Erdoğan also endorsed Özal during the 2014 local election campaign, the ALP withdrew from the election and supported the AKP. The party favours devolution to local authorities, lower taxes and European Union membership. The ALP further advocates the lowering of the parliamentary threshold during general elections from 10% to 2% and also the scrapping of the Political Parties law in order to increase inner-party democracy. The party is against politics that involves language, religious or ethnic discrimination.