Former Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan has taken steps for the establishment of a new party. The relevant documents were submitted to the Ministry of the Interior on Monday. The party is to be called "Democracy and Progress Party" (Demokrasi ve Atılım Partisi, DEVA).

Babacan resigned from the AKP last July. When the AKP came to power in 2002, he became Minister of Economy and was in the meantime chief negotiator for the EU accession talks. In 2007 he became Foreign Minister and Deputy of the then Prime Minister Erdoğan. In 2009 he returned to the economic department.

The list of founding members includes Mustafa Yeneroğlu, the only current member of parliament, who also resigned from the AKP last year. The lawyer, who grew up in Cologne, was long considered Erdogan's mouthpiece. Time and again, he was a discussion partner for members of the German parliament and enjoyed the role of mediator in problems between Berlin and Ankara.