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The Good Party (Turkish language: İYİ Parti) is a nationalist, Kemalism and Conservatism political party in Turkey, established on 25 October 2017 by Meral Akşener. The party's name and flag is a reference to the tamga of the Kayı tribe.
The party was formed as a result in a split by prominent former members of Turkey's Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and later joined by some former members of the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP). The party's founder and chairperson, Meral Akşener, and its deputy chairperson, Koray Aydın, are both former members of the MHP before establishing the party. Plans to form a new party emerged amongst prominent MHP defectors after the MHP's support for a 'Yes' vote in the controversial 2017 constitutional referendum, as well as a failed attempt to unseat the party's governing leader. In addition to endorsing a more moderate civic nationalism as opposed to the ardent ethnic nationalism of the MHP, the party runs on an anti-establishment platform criticising both the governing and opposition parties in Turkey for their ineffectiveness. The party describes itself as being in the centre of political spectrum though third-party sources have described the party as being centre-right or on the right-wing of the political spectrum.
It puts a particular emphasis on the restoration of the parliamentary system and the integrity of the judiciary and other institutions. The party has been widely described as an anti-Erdoğanist alternative for right-leaning voters disillusioned with both the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) and the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP).
The MHP, having won 16.29% of the vote and 80 seats in June 2015, suffered a heavy defeat in the November snap election with just 11.90% of the vote and 40 seats. The loss was widely blamed on Bahçeli's refusal to consider any coalition agreement after the June 2015 election resulted in a hung parliament. The significant loss resulted in MHP dissidents including Akşener launching a drive to unseat Bahçeli from the party's leadership, a process made difficult by the party's strict bylaws. Other prominent MHP dissidents who declared their candidacy for the leadership included Ümit Özdağ, Koray Aydın and Sinan Oğan. Özdağ and Aydın would eventually join Akşener in forming the İYİ Party, as did prominent MHP dissident MPs Yusuf Halaçoğlu, and .
With several MHP delegates supporting the dissidents' drive for a fresh leadership election, Akşener and the other leadership candidates joined forces to hold a constitutional convention, claiming they had the right to do so due to surpassing the required number of delegate signatures required. The MHP leadership boycotted the congress and declared it illegal, taking the process to court. The courts eventually upheld the claim that enough signatures had been submitted and forced the MHP leadership to hold a congress. In a controversial move, another court and the Supreme Electoral Council of Turkey (YSK) both struck down the ruling and asked the MHP leadership to not hold a congress. The move was widely seen as an interference in the judicial process and inner-party democracy by the governing Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Ministry of Justice, which both had an interest in keeping the increasingly cooperative Bahçeli as MHP leader and preventing Akşener from mounting a challenge to the government. Akşener and several other dissidents were expelled from the party in the following months, mounting unsuccessful challenges against their suspensions. The constitutional convention held in June 2016 was annulled by the courts in January 2017.
Akşener, Okutan, Halaçoğlu and Özdağ all became prominent 'No' campaigners, with many political commentators seeing the alliance as a signal of a forthcoming new political party united under Akşener's leadership. The referendum was very controversial due to a last-minute change in the ballot counting procedure by the Supreme Electoral Council, causing the dissident nationalists and other 'No' campaigners to allege fraud and not recognise the results. According to official results, the 'No' side lost with 48.6% of the vote to 'Yes's 51.4%, though Akşener alleged that the actual result was a victory for 'No' by a margin of 52–48%.
Meral Akşener was the party's 2018 presidential candidate, but didn't stand for election as an MP. İYİ participated in the Nation Alliance (Millet İtifakı) with the CHP, Felicity Party, and DP in the parliamentary election, receiving 9.96% of the vote.
On 3 March 2023, Meral Akşener announced that she took the decision to withdraw from the Nation Alliance, and said her party would not support main opposition CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu as the joint candidate in the 2023 Turkish presidential election. However, on 6 March, Akşener and the Good Party rejoined the alliance after intense public criticism and after it was announced that Ekrem İmamoğlu and Mansur Yavaş would be appointed vice-presidents if Kılıçdaroğlu won the presidential election.
On 31 March 2023, the Istanbul headquarters of the Good Party was targeted in a shooting attack. Akşener criticized Erdoğan after the attack by saying "A political party cannot be intimidated one and a half months before an election. We are not afraid. I fear nothing but God. Mr. Recep, I am not afraid of you. But you are the president and you are responsible for every citizen in this country."
İYİ participated in the Nation Alliance with the CHP, SP, DP, DEVA, and GP in the 2023 parliamentary election, receiving 9.69% of the vote. After the election, İYİ's secretary general Uğur Poyraz declared the Nation Alliance dissolved.
Although the party described itself as nationalist conservative during its formation period, its ideology represents civic nationalism rather than the MHP's ardent ethnic nationalism. It is strongly in favour of the Kemalism of Turkey's founding president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
Her campaign drew attention to the drastic increase of cases of violence against women and rape in Turkey under the AKP administration. Akşener declared her pledge to lift good conduct time in all cases of violence against women and rape, and instead of forcefully sending women to therapy in such cases, her party would send the perpetrator to mandatory therapy before or after serving their sentence and therapy for women would be optional. She is heavily against child marriages. Although there was an increase in participation of women in the workforce in Turkey, Akşener stated she finds this inadequate and would implement benevolent sexism to increase participation of women in workforce and to reduce the wage gap.
İYİ Party does not have a women's wing. Akşener advocated that women's wings discriminate against women. Instead İYİ Party has mandatory women's quota of 25% for all branches and candidates of her party, including the general administrative board. As of 2023, İYİ party's 43 MP delegation to the Grand National Assembly contains only 5 women, which is a ratio of 11.6%.
İYİ Party supports Turkey's NATO membership. They oppose Sweden's accession into NATO. Listing the party's reservations to vote "yes" for Sweden's NATO membership, the deputy chairman of the party has stated that "Turkey's request for F-16s should be approved immediately".
The party supports the welfare state.
The party calls for a full adoption of UNESCO Declaration of Animal Rights.
The party supports freedom of speech, and was against the 2017–2020 block of Wikipedia in Turkey.
After the United States Congress voted to recognize the Armenian Genocide in 2019, party spokesperson said, "We will retaliate against it with our decision to name our children Enver Pasha, Cemal Pasha and Talat Pasha".
| Meral Akşener | 25 October 2017 | 1 May 2024 | |||
| Müsavat Dervişoğlu | 1 May 2024 | Incumbent | |||
| 1 | Müsavat Dervişoğlu | Chairperson |
| 2 | Uğur Poyraz | General Secretary |
| 3 | Enver Yılmaz | Deputy Chairman / Director of Political Affairs |
| 4 | Ersin Beyaz | Director of Financial Affairs (Treasurer) |
| 5 | Hasan Toktaş | Director of the Organization |
| 6 | Şükrü Kuleyin | Director of Institutional Relations |
| 7 | Hakan Şeref Olgun | Director of Juristical, Election Affairs and Parliamentary Relations |
| 8 | Ahmet Kamil Erozan | Director of International Relations |
| 9 | Kevser Ofluoğlu | Director of Women, Family and Social Services |
| 10 | Ayyüce Türkeş Taş | Director of Turkic World and Organization Abroad |
| 11 | Cenk Özatıcı | Director of National Security and Immigration Policies |
| 12 | Cumali Durmuş | Director of Local Administrations |
| 13 | Selcan Taşcı | Director of Media Promotion |
| 14 | Erhan Usta | Director of Economical Policies |
| 15 | Alparslan Yüce | Director of R&D-Education and Politics Academy |
| 16 | Alper Akdoğan | Director of NGO Relations |
| 17 | İmren Nilay Tüfekçi | Director of Social Policies |
| 18 | Kadir Ulusoy | Director of Agricultural Policies |
| 19 | Dursun Çolak | Deputy General Secretary |
| 1 | Müsavat Dervişoğlu | Group President | 1 May 2024 |
| 2 | Turhan Çömez | Deputy Presidents | 6 May 2024 |
| 3 | Buğra Kavuncu |
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