Justice and Development Party (Turkey)
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| Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi Justice and Development Party |
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| Leader | Recep Tayyip Erdoğan |
| Founded | August 14, 2001 |
| Headquarters | No. 202 Balgat Ankara, Turkey |
| Political Ideology | Conservatism, Economic liberalism |
| European Affiliation | European People's Party (observer) |
| International Affiliation | none |
| Colours | Orange, White |
| Website | AK Parti |
See also: |
Constitution of Turkey Politics |
The Justice and Development Party (Turkish: Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi or AK Parti, or AKP[1]) is the ruling Turkish political party that describes itself as centre-right conservative party. AKP is the descendant of the fundamentalist religous movement in Turkey. Supreme Court prosecutors asked the Constitutional Court to ban the AK Party.[2]
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[edit] Brief background
The AKP portrays itself as a moderate, conservative, pro-Western party that advocates a liberal market economy and Turkish membership in the European Union.[3] The party's detractors accuse it of harboring a hidden Islamist agenda due to its deep roots in the religious community and the affiliations of some of its members with banned Islamic parties (RP,FP). The AKP won 46.6% of the popular vote and was allocated 341 seats[4] in the rescheduled 22 July, 2007 elections, a massive increase over the 34% of the vote it received in the 2002 general elections. [5]. Its leader, former Istanbul mayor Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is currently the Prime Minister of Turkey.
[edit] History
Erdoğan’s AK Party altered the traditional focus of religiously-affiliated politics from concern over Turkey’s lack of Islamic characteristics to pushing for democratic and economic reforms in addition to stressing moral values through the communitarian-liberal consensus. Erdoğan also sought to temper his party’s Islamist image through building a broad-reaching coalition with members of center-right parties, and promising to further Turkey’s push to join the European Union. Erdoğan also positioned the AKP as the opposition party to the old, secular, state-driven development parties that had been proven ineffective by the repeated economic crises of the 1990s and early 2000s.
A faction of moderate conservative members within the now-banned Welfare Party, known as Yenilikçiler, or in English, Reformist formed the Justice and Development Party on August 14, 2001, in an attempt to ground moderate conservative politics in a secular democratic framework. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the leader of the AK Party, stated that "AK Party is not a political party with a religious axis" when the party was founded.
After some initial stumbling, notably when Erdoğan was temporarily blocked from taking up the Prime Ministership, the AK Party has found its feet. It survived the crisis over the 2003 invasion of Iraq despite a massive back bench rebellion where over a hundred AKP MPs joined those of the opposition Republican People's Party in parliament to prevent the government from allowing the United States to launch a Northern offensive in Iraq from Turkish territory.
The AK Party has undertaken significant structural reforms and its policy achievements have seen rapid growth and an end to Turkey's three decade long period of hyperinflation—inflation had fallen to 8.8% by June 2004. Influential business publications, the Economist and the Financial Times, consider the AK Party's government the most successful in Turkey in decades.[6]
In the local elections of 2004, the AK Party won an unprecedented 42% of the valid votes making inroads against the secular nationalist Republican People's Party (CHP) on the South and West Coasts, and against Social Democratic People's Party (Turkey) which is supported by some Kurds in the Southeast of Turkey.
The AKP shares a parliamentary coalition with the far-right National Action Party.
In January 2005, the AK Party was admitted as an observer member in the European People's Party (EPP), the conservative party of the EU. It is likely to become a full member of the EPP if Turkey is admitted to the EU. If the EU eventually rejects Turkey for membership, however, many fear that the AKP could again split between its reformist and conservative factions, heralding another period of instability in Turkish politics.
[edit] 2007 General elections
- See also: Turkish general election, 2007
The AKP achieved a landslide 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 retain a comfortable ruling majority. [7]
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 AKP 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 sect form a majority. [8]
[edit] Proposed ban, 2008
The chief prosecutor of Turkey Özyürek said "According to the laws in effect, if a party is committing crimes and has really become a 'hotbed of 'anti-secular activities,' in accordance with the constitution, the office of the chief prosecutor is left with no other choice but to file this closure lawsuit." The authority and duty of the public prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals of Turkey has to protect the regime. Protection the regime clause is initiated when the principle of secularism, the irrevocable provision of the constitution, is harmed. The chief prosecutor office stated that it was really unfortunate for a ruling party to have come to be labeled as a party that has become a center of anti-secular activities.
[edit] Path
The chief prosecutor office made the "chief prosecutor file" public on March 14, 2008. The Prime Minister Erdoğan and deputy chairmen immediately convened the governing body to discuss the chief prosecutor file on March 15, 2008. The constitutional court will review this chief prosecutor file. The constitutional court will decide to accept or reject the indictment. If the arguments be accepted, chief prosecutor file will be "officially" routed to the AK Party and will be asked to prepare a defense statement. The initial response of the AK party will be send to chief prosecutor's office. The chief prosecutor will develop "Prosecutor's Technical Position" based on the AK party's initial response.
The constitutional court will review both initial response of AK party and technical position and develop questions regarding the positions. The Court's questions will be presented to the AK Party officials and later court will request them to testify. Deputy Prime Minister Çiçek, known for his skills in oratory, will present the AK Party's defense testimony in court. Once that process is complete, the reporters of the Constitutional Court on the case will prepare a "Court Technical report".
The "Court Technical report", once is ready, the 11 members of the Constitutional Court will review the report and convene on a day scheduled by Constitutional Court President to review the evidance. The vote of at least seven of the 11 judges of the panel will be necessary to ban a party. The parties that were shut down appealed against the decision of closure at the European Court of Human Rights.
[edit] Initial indictment
The indictment -- comprised of 17 folders, according to initial reports-- in addition to the AK Party's disbanding, the prosecutor demanded a five-year ban from involvement in politics for 71 senior AK Party administrators, including Prime Minister Erdoğan and President Abdullah Gül.
- The Political Islam represented by the AK party claims to change state rules; members of the party have acts at the area between the "Person" and "the God", which is banned to politicians by constitution.
- AK party has arrangements based on sharia. (a) Party leader Erdogan claimed in Spain in January 2008 saying "Even if (headscarf) is a political symbol, constitution and courts do not have right to ban".
- AK party has changed articles 10 and 42 of the Constitution to change the essence of the principle of secularism.
- The AK party used the executive powers based on "Public arrangements with religious rules," this form of decision making is banned by the constitution.
[edit] References
- ^ The former of the two abbreviations is the official one, as documented in the third article of the party charter, while the latter is mostly preferred by its opponents; since the word "ak" in Turkish means "white, clean, or unblemished" and therefore gives a positive impression about the party, although it is not clear in public mind.
- ^ http://www.ntvmsnbc.com/news/439256.asp
- ^ New to Turkish politics? Here's a rough primer - Turkey's Vote analysis and results with Turkish Daily News Jul 22, 2007
- ^ Ntvmsnbc Secim 2007
- ^ Ruling Party in Turkey Wins Broad Victory - New York Times
- ^ Turkey | The battle for Turkey's soul | Economist.com
- ^ Elections - Turkey's Vote analysis and results with Turkish Daily News
- ^ BBCTurkish.com | Özel Dosyalar | Turkey: 22 July 2007 - Election Results
[edit] See also
- Turkey
- Politics of Turkey
- Political Islam
- List of political parties in Turkey
- Abdullah Gül
- Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
- Republican People's Party (Turkey)
- Republic Protests
- Constitution of Turkey
[edit] External links
- Justice and Development Party official website (English)
- Justice and Development Party official website (Turkish)
- European People's Party official website
- Turkishpolitix.com - Online dossier on the AKP
- (Turkish) nethaber.com - Muhalefetin önergesi yanlışlıkla kabul edildi
Not in the name of the people, but as the opposition
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