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The Historic Compromise (Turkish: Tarihsel Uzlaşma), called also Third Phase (Turkish: Üçüncü Safha) or Democratic Alternative (Turkish: Demokrat Alternatif), was a historical political accommodation between the Republican People's Party (CHP) and the Justice Party (AP) in the 1970s.
History
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In 1977, Bülent Ecevit, Leader of the Republican People's Party (CHP), launched in social democrat magazine Özgür İnsan a proposal for a "democratic alliance" with the Justice Party (AP), embraced by Süleyman Demirel. The call for this alliance was inspired by the rising political violence between communist and nationalist militants in the country. For Ecevit, the rise in political extremism proved that the Kemalist left could not aspire to govern without establishing alliances with other moderate forces. After the Taksim Square Massacre in 1977, there was cooperation between the CHP and AP that became a political alliance in 1978, with Prime Minister Demirel including Ecevit in an emergency meeting with Turkey's political party leaders on January 2, 1978, to discuss averting the possibility of a military coup by officers wishing to put an end to political violence. This replaced a governing alliance between the Justice Party and the other conservative parties known as the Nationalist Front. Demirel's AP attempted to distance itself from the former Democrat Party, while Ecevit's CHP aligned its economic policies more to the center in an attempt to bring political stability. The alliance was formalized after the collapse of the AP minority government, with Ecevit becoming prime minister in a CHP/AP coalition government on September 12, 1980.