After weeks of uncertainty and foot-dragging, the Appeals Court this week made a critical ruling, setting the stage for a potential shakeup in Turkish politics that may block President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s drive for an executive presidency. The court gave the green light for the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) to hold a convention requested by in-house dissidents seeking to remake the party, whose erosion in recent years has played directly into Erdogan’s hands. Leading the dissidents is Meral Aksener, a rare female heavyweight on Turkey’s political scene, whose fortunes may now change not only the MHP’s but also Turkey’s course.

The MHP, currently the smallest party in parliament, has traditionally been an influential force in Turkish politics — although it has never passed the 20% mark in elections, even in the days of its iconic leader, Alparslan Turkes, an army officer who was a leading figure in the 1960 coup and who chaired the party until his death in 1997.

Turkes was succeeded by Devlet Bahceli, the incumbent chairman in the crosshairs of the in-house mutiny. After his electoral debut as party chairman in 1999, Bahceli joined a three-way coalition, led by the center-left Democratic Left Party of then-Prime Minister Bulent Ecevit. This unlikely partnership managed to undertake a number of landmark, even revolutionary, initiatives for Turkey, including major constitutional amendments. Most remarkably, the MHP went beyond itself to endorse the suspension of the death sentence for Abdullah Ocalan — the leader of the Kurdistan Workers Party — as well as legal reforms that eased restrictions on the Kurdish language. Braving the political risks, Bahceli argued the measures served the long-term interests of the state. He was also credited for pulling young nationalists from the streets after years of bloody clashes between the left and the right.

But his political courage aside, Bahceli is perhaps best remembered for precipitating two early elections that swayed Turkey’s course.