Founders continue to resign from Good Party


The far-right Good Party's (İP) troubles continued yesterday as two more founders of the party handed in their resignations.

Reşat Erdoğan and Emine Erdoğan Aydoğdu, both founding figures of the İP, resigned from the party. A reason for their resignation they said, was that the idea of "Turkish nationality" was not being taken into consideration within party policies.

Stating in their resignation petition that the party had already lost its opportunity to reach the desired wider population of voters, they said that İP had turned into a party targeting Turkish nationalists. The two also emphasized that the discriminating and aggressive rhetoric used against Turkish nationalists was not acceptable.

It was also expressed in the petition that the İP is setting Turkish nationalists against each other with its decision and implications.

Underlining that none of the aims were more valuable than their 43 years of nationalist ideologies, they said that in order to prevent further harm to their values, they had decided to resign.

The İP has been in distress since its poor performance in the June 24 elections. Dissatisfaction with the elections and İP members' uneasiness over their positions on candidate lists stoked tensions in the party. Many members, including key founding members, resigned while protesting the party's policies.

Failing to manage the unraveling situation, party leader Meral Akşener called for an extraordinary convention and announced her resignation following meetings in the central province of Afyonkarahisar in late July. Although Akşener previously decided to step down in the face of mounting pressure, some party officials persuaded her to remain in the post, resulting in her strengthening her grip on the party.