In November 2011, the Movement joined forces with the newly formed Syrian Turkmen Group to launch a broader political party, the Syria Turkmen Bloc, which was officially established in February 2012. Inmidst the merger phase, they however suffered a split, with both leaders of the constituent organizations, the Movement's Ali Öztürkmen and the Syrian Turkmen Group's Bekir Atacan, leaving to launch yet another activism-based movement, the Syrian Democratic Turkmen Movement.[2]