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The Justice and Development Party (Template:Lang-tr), abbreviated JDP in English and AK PARTİ or AKP in Turkish, is a social conservative political party in Turkey. It has developed from the tradition of Islamism, but has officially abandoned this ideology in favour of "conservative democracy". The party is the largest in Turkey, with 327 members of parliament. Its leader, Ahmet Davutoğlu, is Prime Minister, while former party leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is President.

Founded in 2001 by members of a number of existing conservative parties, the party won a landslide victory in the 2002 election, winning over two-thirds of parliamentary seats. Abdullah Gül became Prime Minister, but a constitutional amendment in 2003 allowed Erdoğan to take his place. In an early general election in 2007, the AKP increased its share of the vote to 47%; its number of seats fell to 341, but Erdoğan was returned as PM, while Gül was elected President. In the general elections held on June 12, 2011, the AKP further increased its share of the popular vote to 49.8% and secured 327 parliamentary seats to form a third consecutive majority government.

The AKP portrays itself as a pro-Western and pro-American party in the Turkish political spectrum that advocates a liberal market economy including Turkish membership in the European Union. In 2005, the party was granted observer membership in the European People's Party. In November 2013, the party left the EPP to join the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists instead.

In the presidential election of 2014, the AKP's long time leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected President. In the party's first extraordinary congress, former foreign minister Ahmet Davutoğlu was unanimously elected unopposed as party leader and took over as Prime Minister on 28 August 2014.

Formation

The AK Party was established by a wide range of politicians of various political parties and a number of new politicians. The core of the party was formed from the reformist faction of the Islamist Virtue Party, including people such as Abdullah Gül, Bülent Arınç, and Melih Gökçek. A second founding group consisted of members of the social conservative Motherland Party who had been close to Turgut Özal, such as Cemil Çiçek and Abdülkadir Aksu. Some members of the Turkish Democratic Party, such as Hüseyin Çelik and Köksal Toptan, joined the AKP. Some members, such as Kürşad Tüzmen had nationalist or Ertuğrul Günay, had center-left backgrounds while representatives of the nascent 'Muslim left' current were largely excluded. In addition a large number of people joined a political party for the first time, such as Ali Babacan, Selma Aliye Kavaf, Egemen Bağış and Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu. All of these people joined Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to found the new party.

Ideology

Although the party is described as an Islamist party in some media, party officials reject those claims. According to former minister Hüseyin Çelik, "In the Western press, when the AK Party administration – the ruling party of the Turkish Republic – is being named, unfortunately most of the time 'Islamic,' 'Islamist,' 'mildly Islamist,' 'Islamic-oriented,' 'Islamic-based' or 'with an Islamic agenda,' and similar language is being used. These characterizations do not reflect the truth, and they sadden us." Çelik added, "The AK Party is a conservative democratic party. The AK Party's conservatism is limited to moral and social issues." Also in a separate speech made in 2005, Prime Minister Erdoğan stated, "We are not an Islamic party, and we also refuse labels such as Muslim-democrat." Erdoğan went on to say that the AK Party's agenda is limited to "conservative democracy".

The party's foreign policy has also been widely described as Neo-Ottomanist, an ideology that promotes renewed Turkish political engagement in the former territories of its predecessor state, the Ottoman Empire. However, the party's leadership has also rejected this label.

History

Closure cases

The Justice and Development Party has faced two closure cases in its history. Just 10 days before the national elections of 2002, Turkey's chief prosecutor, Sabih Kanadoğlu, asked the Turkish constitutional court to close the Justice and Development Party, which was leading in the polls at that time. The chief prosecutor charged the Justice and Development Party with abusing the law and justice. He based his case on the fact that the party's leader had been banned from political life for reading an Islamist poem, and thus the party had no standing in elections. The European Commission had previously criticised Turkey for banning the party's leader from participating in elections.

The party again faced a closure trial in 2008. At an international press conference in Spain, Erdoğan answered a question of a journalist by saying, "What if the headscarf is a symbol? Even if it were a political symbol, does that give right to ban it? Could you bring prohibitions to symbols?" These statements led to a joint proposal of the Justice and Development Party and the far-right Nationalist Movement Party for changing the constitution and the law to lift a ban on women wearing headscarves at state universities. Soon afterwards, Turkey's chief prosecutor, Abdurrahman Yalçınkaya, asked the Constitutional Court of Turkey to close down the party on charges of violating the separation of religion and state in Turkey. The closure request failed by only one vote, as only 6 of the 11 judges ruled in favour, with 7 required; however, 10 out of 11 judges agreed that the Justice and Development Party had become "a center for anti-secular activities", leading to a loss of 50% of the state funding for the party.

Elections

2002 general elections

The AK party won a sweeping victory in the 2002 elections, which saw every party previously represented in the Grand National Assembly ejected from the chamber. In the process, it won a two-thirds majority of seats, becoming the first Turkish party in 11 years to win an outright majority. Erdoğan normally would have become prime minister, but was banned from holding any political office after a 1994 incident in which he read a poem deemed pro-Islamist by judges. As a result, Gül became prime minister. It survived the crisis over the 2003 invasion of Iraq despite a massive back bench rebellion where over a hundred AK Party MPs joined those of the opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) in parliament to prevent the government from allowing the United States to launch a Northern offensive in Iraq from Turkish territory. Later, Erdoğan's ban was abolished with the help of the CHP and Erdoğan became prime minister by being selected to parliament after a by-election in Siirt.

The AK Party has undertaken structural reforms, and during its rule Turkey has seen rapid growth and an end to its three decade long period of high inflation rates. Inflation had fallen to 8.8% by 2004.

Influential business publications such as The Economist consider the AK Party's government the most successful in Turkey in decades.

2004 local elections

In the local elections of 2004, the AK Party won 42% of the votes, making inroads against the secular Republican People's Party (CHP) on the South and West Coasts, and against the Social Democratic People's Party, which is supported by some Kurds in the South-East of Turkey.

In January 2005, the AK Party was admitted as an observer member in the European People's Party (EPP). However, it left the EPP to join the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists (AECR) in 2013.

2007 elections

On April 14, 2007, an estimated 300,000 people marched in Ankara to protest the possible candidacy of Erdoğan in the 2007 presidential election, afraid that if elected as President, he would alter the secular nature of the Turkish state. Erdoğan announced on April 24, 2007 that the party had decided to nominate Abdullah Gül as the AK Party candidate in the presidential election. The protests continued over the next several weeks, with over one million reported at an April 29 rally in Istanbul, tens of thousands reported at separate protests on May 4 in Manisa and Çanakkale, and one million in İzmir on May 13.

Early parliamentary elections were called after the failure of the parties in parliament to agree on the next Turkish president. The opposition parties boycotted the parliamentary vote and deadlocked the election process. At the same time, Erdoğan claimed the failure to elect a president was a failure of the Turkish political system and proposed to modify the constitution.

The AK Party achieved victory in the rescheduled July 22, 2007 elections with 46.6% of the vote, translating into control of 341 of the 550 available parliamentary seats. Although the AK Party received significantly more votes in 2007 than in 2002, the number of parliamentary seats they controlled decreased due to the rules of the Turkish electoral system. However, they retained a comfortable ruling majority. "Don't Stop, Keep Going On!" was the slogan of the Justice and Development Party in the general elections of 2007.

Territorially, the elections of 2007 saw a major advance for the AK Party, with the party outpolling the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party in traditional Kurdish strongholds such as Van and Mardin, as well as outpolling the secular-left CHP in traditionally secular areas such as Antalya and Artvin. Overall, the AK Party secured a plurality of votes in 68 of Turkey's 81 provinces, with its strongest vote of 71% coming from Bingöl. Its weakest vote, a mere 12%, came from Tunceli, the only Turkish province where the Alevi form a majority. Abdullah Gül was elected President in late August with 339 votes in the third round – the first at which a simple majority is required – after deadlock in the first two rounds, in which a two-thirds majority is needed.

2007 constitutional referendum

After the opposition parties deadlocked the 2007 presidential election by boycotting the parliament, the ruling AK party proposed a constitutional reform package. The reform package was first vetoed by President Sezer. Then he applied to the Turkish constitutional court about the reform package, because the president is unable to veto amendments for the second time. The court did not find any problems in the package and 69% of the voters supported the constitutional changes. The reforms consisted of:

• electing the president by popular vote instead of by parliament;
• reducing the presidential term from seven years to five;
• allowing the president to stand for re-election for a second term;
• holding general elections every four years instead of five;
• reducing the quorum of lawmakers needed for parliamentary decisions from 367 to 184.

2009 local elections

The Turkish local elections of 2009 took place during the financial crisis of 2007–2010. After the success of the AK Party in the 2007 general elections, the party saw a decline in the local elections of 2009. In these elections the AK Party received 39% of the vote, 3% less than in the local elections of 2004. Still, the AK Party remained the dominating party in Turkey. The second party CHP received 23% of the vote and the third party MHP received 16% of the vote. The AK Party won in Turkey's largest cities: Ankara and Istanbul.

2010 constitutional referendum

Reforming the Constitution was one of the main pledges of the AK Party during the 2007 election campaign. The main opposition party CHP was not interested in altering the Constitution on a big scale, making it impossible to form a Constitutional Commission (Anayasa Uzlaşma Komisyonu). The amendments lacked the two-thirds majority needed to instantly become law, but secured 336 votes in the 550 seat parliament – enough to put the proposals to a referendum. The reform package included a number of issues: such as the right of individuals to appeal to the highest court, the creation of the ombudsman’s office, the possibility to negotiate a nation-wide labour contract, positive exceptions for female citizens, the ability of civilian courts to convict members of the military, the right of civil servants to go on strike, a privacy law, and the structure of the Constitutional Court. The referendum was agreed by a majority of 58%.

Merger with People's Voice Party

In September 2012, two-year-old conservative-oriented People's Voice Party (HAS Parti) dissolved itself and joined the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) with a majority of its delegates' votes. In July 2012, following long-held speculation that former HSP leader Numan Kurtulmuş was on Prime Minister Erdoğan's mind as his possible successor as party head, Erdoğan personally proposed to Kurtulmuş the idea of merging the parties under the umbrella of the AKP.

Election results

Presidential elections

General elections

Local elections

Referendums

Footnotes

• ^† "AK PARTİ" (in all capital letters) is the self-declared abbreviation of the name of the party, as stated in Article 3 of the party charter, while "AKP" is mostly preferred by its opponents; the supporters prefer "AK PARTİ" since the word "ak" in Turkish means "white", "clean", or "unblemished," lending a positive impression. The Chief Public Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals initially used "AKP", but after an objection from the party, "AKP" was replaced with "Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi" (without abbreviation) in documents.

Literature

• Cizre, Ümit (ed.) (2008). "Secular and Islamic politics in Turkey: The making of the Justice and Development Party". RoutledgeTemplate:Inconsistent citations {{cite journal}}: |first= has generic name (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)
• Cizre, Ümit (2012). "A New Politics of Engagement: The Turkish Military, Society and the AKP". Democracy, Islam, and secularism in Turkey. Columbia University PressTemplate:Inconsistent citations{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
• Hale, William; Özbudun, Ergun (2010). "Islamism, Democracy and Liberalism in Turkey: The Case of the AKP". RoutledgeTemplate:Inconsistent citations {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)
• Yavuz, M. Hakan (ed.) (2006). "The Emergence of a New Turkey: Islam, Democracy and the AK Parti". The University of Utah PressTemplate:Inconsistent citations {{cite journal}}: |first= has generic name (help); Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)
• Yavuz, M. Hakan (2009). "Secularism and Muslim Democracy in Turkey". Cambridge University PressTemplate:Inconsistent citations {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)

See also

• 2013–14 protests in Turkey
• 2013 corruption scandal in Turkey

References

1. "Turkey's ruling party has 7.5 mln members". Hürriyet Daily News. 14 February 2013. Archived from the original on 2 November 2014.
2. ^ Cook, Steven A. (2012). "Recent History: The Rise of the Justice and Development Party". U.S.-Turkey Relations: A New Partnership. Council on Foreign Relations: 52Template:Inconsistent citations{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
3. Göçek, Fatma Müge (2011). "The Transformation of Turkey: Redefining State and Society from the Ottoman Empire to the Modern Era". I.B. Tauris: 56Template:Inconsistent citations {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link)
4. Tocci, Nathalie (2012). "Turkey and the European Union". The Routledge Handbook of Modern Turkey. Routledge: 241Template:Inconsistent citations{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
5. Taşpınar, Ömer. "Turkey: The New Model? (April 2012)". Brookings.edu. The Brookings Institution. Retrieved 21 July 2014.
6. Duran, Burhanettin (2008). "The Justice and Development Party's 'new politics': Steering toward conservative democracy, a revised Islamic agenda or management of new crises". Secular and Islamic politics in Turkey: 80 ffTemplate:Inconsistent citations{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
7. Akdoğan, Yalçın (2006). "The Meaning of Conservative Democratic Political Identity". The Emergence of a New Turkey: 49 ffTemplate:Inconsistent citations{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link)
8. http://www.iuee.eu/pdf-dossier/12/VsjcpWMGTq1zMjSMgwnh.PDF
9. ^ "New to Turkish politics? Here's a rough primer". Turkish Daily News. 2007-07-22. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
10. http://haber.gazetevatan.com/0/122728/4/Yazarlar/73
11. "Justice and Development Party". Encyclopaedia Britannica. Britannica.com. Retrieved 21 July 2014. Unlike its predecessors, the AKP did not centre its image around an Islamic identity; indeed, its leaders underscored that it was not an Islamist party and emphasized that its focus was democratization, not the politicization of religion.
12. "AKP explains charter changes, slams foreign descriptions". Hürriyet Daily News. Istanbul. 2010-03-28. Retrieved 21 July 2014. In the Western press, when the AK Party administration, the ruling party of the Turkish Republic, is being named, unfortunately most of the time 'Islamic,' 'Islamist,' 'mildly Islamist,' 'Islamic-oriented,' 'Islamic-leaning,' 'Islamic-based' or 'with an Islamic agenda,' and similar language is being used. These characterizations do not reflect the truth, and they sadden us," Çelik said. "Yes, the AK Party is a conservative democratic party. The AK Party's conservatism is limited to moral and social issues.
13. Taşpınar, Ömer (April 2012). "Turkey: The New Model?". Brookings Institute. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
14. Taşpınar, Ömer (September 2008). "Turkey's Middle East Policies: Between Neo-Ottomanism and Kemalism". Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Retrieved 2010-06-05.
15. "I am not a neo-Ottoman, Davutoğlu says". Today's Zaman. Turkey. 2009-11-25. Retrieved 2012-01-09.
16. "Turkey mulls banning leading party before elections". EurActiv. October 23, 2002. Retrieved February 15, 2011.
17. Gungor, Izgi (2008-07-22). "From landmark success to closure: AKP's journey". Turkish Daily News. Retrieved 2008-08-11.
18. "Closure case against ruling party creates shockwaves". Today's Zaman. 2008-03-15. Retrieved 2008-11-16.
19. "Full text of testimony". Milliyet (in Turkish). Retrieved 2008-09-04.
20. Today's Zaman, 19 August 2013, AK Party to ask for retrial by Constitutional Court
21. "The battle for Turkey's soul (Democracy v secularism in Turkey)". The Economist. 2007-05-03. Archived from the original on an unspecified date. Retrieved 2008-07-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |archivedate= (help)
22. "Secular rally targets Turkish PM," BBC News, April 14, 2007.
23. "Turkey's ruling party announces FM Gul as presidential candidate," Xinhua, April 24, 2007.
24. "More than one million rally in Turkey for secularism, democracy". Agence France-Presse. Retrieved 2007-04-29.
25. "One million Turks rally against government". Reuters. 2007-04-29. Retrieved 2007-04-30.
26. "Saylan: Manisa mitingi önemli". Milliyet (in Turkish). Retrieved 2007-05-04.
27. "Turks protest ahead of early elections". Swissinfo. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-13.
28. "Turkey: 22 July 2007 - Election Results". BBC Turkish. 2007-07-23. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
29. "Turkish local elections, 2009". NTV-MSNBC. 2009-03-29. Retrieved 2009-03-29. {{cite news}}: |section= ignored (help)
30. "AKP'nin Anayasa hedefi 15 madde". NTVMSNBC. 2009-02-17. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
31. HSP dissolves itself as its leader plans to join the ruling party
32. "AK PARTİ TÜZÜĞÜ" (PDF) (in Turkish). Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi. Retrieved 2014-09-23. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |trans_title= ignored (|trans-title= suggested) (help)
33. "Less than white?". The Economist. 2008-09-18. Retrieved 2008-09-22.
34. "AK Parti mi, AKP mi? (AK Parti or AKP?)". Habertürk (in Turkish). 2009-06-05. Retrieved 2009-08-10.
35. Ebru Toktar and Ersin Bal. "Laiklik anlayışlarımız farklı" Template:Tr icon. Akşam, 2008-05-07.

External links

• Official website Template:En icon Template:Tr icon
• AK Youth Template:Tr icon
• AK Party Political Academy Template:Tr icon
• AK Kanal Template:Tr icon
• AK İcraatlar Template:Tr icon

v t e Political parties in Turkey
Parties represented in the Parliament Justice and Development Party (266) Republican People's Party (128) Peoples' Equality and Democracy Party (57) Nationalist Movement Party (50) Good Party (30) Felicity Party (20) Democracy and Progress Party (15) New Welfare Party (4) Workers' Party of Turkey (4) Free Cause Party (4) Democrat Party (3) Democratic Regions Party (2) Labour Party (2) Democratic Left Party (1)
Minor parties (without representation above local level) Alternative and Change Party AS Party Association for Defence of National Rights Movement Party Centre Party Communist Movement of Turkey Communist Party Communist Party of Turkey Conservative Ascension Party Crescent Star Party Democracy Time Party Freedom and Socialism Party Future Party Great Unity Party Green Party Green Left Party Homeland Party (2002) Homeland Party (2021) Independent Republican Party Independent Turkey Party Justice Party Labourist Movement Party Left Party Liberal Democratic Party Motherland Party Nation and Justice Party Nation Party National Party National Struggle Party Party for Change in Turkey Patriotic Party Peoples' Democratic Party People's Liberation Party Pirate Party Revolutionary Socialist Workers' Party Revolutionary Workers' Party Rights and Freedoms Party Rights and Justice Party Social Freedom Party Socialist Liberation Party Socialist Party of the Oppressed Socialist Refoundation Party Socialist Workers' Party of Turkey True Path Party Women's Party Workers' Peasants' Party of Turkey Victory Party Young Party
Portal:Politics List of political parties Politics of Turkey

• Justice and Development Party (Turkey)
• Liberal-conservative parties
• Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists
• Political parties established in 2001
• Conservative parties in Turkey
• 2001 establishments in Turkey
• Organizations based in Ankara