Justice and Development Party (Turkey)

Justice and Development Party
Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi
Leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
Founded August 14, 2001 (2001-08-14)
Headquarters No. 202 Balgat, Ankara, Turkey
Ideology Economic Liberalism [1]
Conservatism [1]
Political position Centre-right
International affiliation None
European affiliation European People's Party (observer)
Official colours Yellow, orange, blue, white
Parliament:
336 / 550
Municipalities:
1,452 / 2,919
Website
Official Site
Politics of Turkey
Political parties
Elections

The Justice and Development Party (JDP) (Turkish: Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, abbreviated AK Parti or AKP†) is a Turkish political party. The AK Party portrays itself as a moderate and conservative party, that advocates a liberal market economy and Turkish membership in the European Union.[2] In 2005, the AK Party was granted observer membership in the European People's Party. The AK Party won 46.6% of the popular vote and was allocated 341 seats[3] in the rescheduled 22 July 2007 elections. Abdullah Gül, a prominent AK Party leader, former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, is currently the President of Turkey, while Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is the head of the party and the Prime Minister. The AK Party has the most female representatives in the Turkish parliament.

Contents

Formation

The AK Party was established mostly by former members of the Fazilet Partisi distributed through Turkey. A reformist faction (Turkish: yenilikçiler) inside the former Islamist party Fazilet Partisi (Virtue Party) founded the AK Party. The Fazilet Partisi carried on an unbroken political Islamist tradition: from Milli Görüş (National View) to Milli Nizam Partisi (National Order Party) to Milli Selamet Partisi (National Salvation Party) to Refah Partisi (Welfare Party) to Fazilet Partisi. After the ban of Fazilet by The Constitutional Court, the reformist fraction in the Virtue Party including Abdullah Gül and Bülent Arınç joined Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to found a new party. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan became the leader, stating that "AK Parti is not a political party with a religious axis", implying a break with the Islamist tradition. However, critics accused it of harboring a hidden agenda.[4]

2002 closure case

Sabih Kanadoğlu, then the Chief Public Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals asked the Constitutional Court to close the party on October 23, 2002. He alleged that the party violated the political parties law. The court gave its verdict on 9 July 2009, rejecting the demand, and the case against the AK Party was terminated.[5]

2002 general elections

After winning the elections in 2002, since Erdoğan was permanently blocked from taking up the Prime Ministership, Gül became the 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 in parliament to prevent the government from allowing the United States to launch a Northern offensive in Iraq from Turkish territory. Later, the ban of Erdoğan was abolished by the help of CHP and Erdoğan became the prime minister by being selected to parliament after a repeated election in Siirt.

A rally of the Justice and Development Party in 2007

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 hyperinflation—inflation had fallen to 8.8% by June 2004. Influential business publications such as The Economist consider the AK Party's government the most successful in Turkey in decades.[6]

Economic reforms

Political reforms

2004 local elections

In the local elections of 2004, the AK Party won 42% of the votes, making inroads against the secular nationalist 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.

EU membership bid

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 AK Party could again split between its reformist and conservative factions, heralding another period of instability in Turkish politics.

2007 general elections

Map illustrating the party's performance at the 2007 general election by constituency.
AKP poster with the PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan thanking the Turkish people for the election results.

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 retain a comfortable ruling majority.[2] "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.[7]

2008 closure case

During a trip to Spain, the prime minister remarked "What if the headscarf is a symbol? Even if it were a political symbol, does that give [one the] right to ban it? Could you bring prohibitions to symbols?" After the party's attempt to lift the headscarf ban, the Chief Public Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals, Abdurrahman Yalçınkaya, first warned (January 17), then formally asked the Constitutional Court to close the party (March 14).[8] Addressing the Constitutional Court, he 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."[9]

Preparations

The chief prosecutor's office made the "chief prosecutor file" public on 14 March 2008. Prime Minister Erdoğan and his deputies immediately convened the governing body to discuss the chief prosecutor file the next day. The Constitutional Court reviewed the file and unanimously accepted the indictment. Seven of the eleven judges were appointed by former president Ahmet Necdet Sezer.

The Constitutional Court reviewed both the initial response of the AK Party and its technical position and developed questions regarding the positions. The court's questions were presented to the AK Party officials. Deputy Prime Minister Cemil Çiçek presented the AK Party's defense testimony in court.[10] A court-appointed rapporteur, Osman Can, advocated in his report that the Court should reject the closure case.[11]

Indictment

In the indictment - comprising 2,455 pages in 441 files - 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, which claimed the party has:

The chief prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals applied to the Constitutional Court on Friday evening demanding that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) be disbanded

Abdurrahman Yalçınkaya filed a court request for the closure of the AK Party, accusing it of "being a hotbed of anti-secular activities." The party won 47 percent of the votes in last year's general election.

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 indictment - consisting of seventeen folders, according to initial reports - lists news stories that were printed in the press, including statements and certain implementations allegedly committed by AK Party mayors, such as an alcohol ban that was overturned by the Council of State or the construction of gender-segregated parks, as evidence for the charges. Although the complete list of evidence was not immediately available, some of the news clips that made their way into the case file had been refuted, reports said. Prime Minister Erdoğan and deputy chairmen of the AK Party immediately convened to discuss the situation.

Verdict

After deliberating for three months, the Constitutional Court gave its verdict on 30 July 2008. The court found that the AK Party had shown signs of being "a focal point of anti-secular activities". A qualified majority of seven out of eleven votes is required to disband a political party. Six members of the court voted in favour of disbanding the party for violating Turkey’s secular principles, thus falling short of the required qualified majority by one vote.[12] Four members voted to cut public funding for the party, while the court's chairman voted against closing it down. The court rejected most of the demands of the prosecutor and did not ban the party; however, it halved its public funding as a penalty, and issued a "serious warning".[12][13]

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 votes and lost 3 point compared to the local elections of 2004. Still, the AK Party remained the dominating party in Turkey. The second party CHP received 23% of the votes and the third party MHP received 16% of the votes. The AK Party won in Turkey's largest cities: Ankara and Istanbul.[14]

Election results

General elections

Election date Party leader Number of votes received Percentage of votes Number of deputies
November 3, 2002 Recep Tayyip Erdoğan 10.763.904 34,26% 363
July 22, 2007 Recep Tayyip Erdoğan 16.327.291 46,58% 341

Local elections

Election date Party leader Provincial council votes Percentage of votes Number of municipalities
March 28, 2004 Recep Tayyip Erdoğan 13,447,287 42,18% 1750
March 29, 2009 Recep Tayyip Erdoğan 15.513.554 38,83% 1404

Footnotes

  • ^† The former of the two abbreviations is the official one according to the party itself, as documented in the third article of the party charter, while the latter one is mostly preferred by its opponents; since the word "ak" in Turkish means "white", "clean", or "unblemished," lending a positive impression.[15][16] The Chief Public Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals initially used "AKP", but after an objection from the party,[17] "AKP" was replaced with "Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi" (without abbreviation) in documents.

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 http://www.akparti.org.tr/parti-programi_79.html
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 "New to Turkish politics? Here's a rough primer". Turkish Daily News. 2007-07-22. http://arama.hurriyet.com.tr/arsivnews.aspx?id=-610584. Retrieved 2008-07-22. 
  3. ↑ Secim 2007, NTV-MSNBC
  4. ↑ An editorial cartoon captures the divided opinion, referencing the Islamic practice of taqiyya (dissimulation): Asyalı, Ergin (2003-08-22). "Körün istediği bir göz, Allah verdi iki göz". Gözcu/Asabi (Ankara: Gerçek Yayıncılık A.Ş.). http://www.practicalturkish.com/idioms--korun-istedigi-bir-goz.html. 
  5. ↑ http://haber.frmtr.com/ext.php?ref=http://www.cnnturk.com/2009/turkiye/07/09/akp.hakkinda.acilan.kapatma.davasi.dustu/534361.0/index.html
  6. ↑ "The battle for Turkey's soul (Democracy v secularism in Turkey)". The Economist. 2007-05-03. Archived from the original on an unspecified date. http://www.muslimstoday.com/en/Contents.aspx?AID=5610. Retrieved 2008-07-22. 
  7. ↑ "Turkey: 22 July 2007 - Election Results". BBC Turkish. 2007-07-23. http://www.bbc.co.uk/turkish/indepth/story/2007/07/070719_election_results_en.shtml. Retrieved 2008-07-22. 
  8. ↑ Gungor, Izgi (2008-07-22). "From landmark success to closure: AKP's journey". Turkish Daily News. http://arama.hurriyet.com.tr/arsivnews.aspx?id=-634073. Retrieved 2008-08-11. 
  9. ↑ "Closure case against ruling party creates shockwaves". Today's Zaman. 2008-03-15. http://www.todayszaman.com/tz-web/detaylar.do?load=detay&link=136476. Retrieved 2008-11-16. 
  10. ↑ "Full text of testimony" (in Turkish). Milliyet. http://i.milliyet.com.tr/akpsavunma/default.aspx?ver=59. Retrieved 2008-09-04. 
  11. ↑ "Constitutional Court Takes Up The AKP Closure Case". Bianet. 2008-07-28. http://www.bianet.org/english/kategori/english/108647/constitutional-court-takes-up-the-akp-closure-case. Retrieved 2008-09-04. "The rapporteur’s conclusion was to reject the closure case." 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Turkey's court decides not to close AK Party, urges unity and compromise". Hurriyet. 2008-07-30. http://www.hurriyet.com.tr/english/home/9547882.asp?gid=244&sz=29614. Retrieved 2008-07-30. 
  13. ↑ Tavernise, Sabrina; Arsu, Sebnem (2008-07-31). "Turkish Court Calls Ruling Party Constitutional". New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/31/world/europe/31turkey.html?fta=y.. Retrieved 2008-11-25. 
  14. ↑ "Turkish local elections, 2009". NTV-MSNBC. 2009-03-29. http://secim2009.ntvmsnbc.com/default.htm. Retrieved 2009-03-29. 
  15. ↑ "Less than white?". The Economist. http://www.economist.com/world/europe/displaystory.cfm?story_id=12273885. Retrieved 2008-09-22. 
  16. ↑ "AK Parti mi, AKP mi? (AK Parti or AKP?)" (in Turkish). Habertürk. 2009-06-05. http://www.haberturk.com/haber.asp?id=151231&cat=160&dt=2009/06/05. Retrieved 2009-08-10. 
  17. ↑ Ebru Toktar and Ersin Bal. "Laiklik anlayışlarımız farklı" (Turkish). Akşam, 2008-05-07.

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