 He was a candidate for member of parliament for Istanbul in the 2002 elections.In 2005, the portraits Belli had made 50 years earlier, while in prison, were presented in an exhibition "Lines From Prison".Together with several other founding members he resigned from the SDP in 2007 and took part in the 2008 founding of the Workers' Socialist Party ("İşçilerin Sosyalist Partisi"), better known by the shortened name Socialist Party ("Sosyalist Parti"), along with others who left.