The new Movement was founded on 21 March 2012 in Istanbul, under the auspices of representatives of Turkey's Islamist Great Unity Party (BBP), the Iraqi Turkmen Front and of Ülkü Ocakları, the "Grey Wolves" youth branch of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). The new movement's first leader Abdulkerim Ağa stressed their determination to "take an active role in Syrian politics," while reaching out to "all the various actors of the Syrian opposition to achieve a democratic and civilized Syria".[3]