Justice and Development Party

Justice and Development Party, political party that came to power in Turkey in the general elections of 2002. In spite of the party’s nonconfessional mandate, the AKP draws significant support from nonsecular Turks and has faced objections from some segments of Turkish society that it harbours an Islamist agenda that could undermine Turkey’s secular foundation.

Background and formation

The success of the AKP in the early 2000s can be traced to inroads made in the 1990s by the Welfare Party (WP; Refah Partisi), an Islamic party founded in 1983. Buoyed by the increasing role of Islam in Turkish life in the 1980s and ’90s—evidenced by changes in dress and appearance, segregation of the sexes, the growth of Islamic schools and banks, and support for Sufi orders—the WP won an overwhelming victory in the 1995 parliamentary elections and became the first Islamic party ever to win a general election in Turkey. In January 1998, however, the WP was banned by Turkey’s constitutional court on charges of disturbing the secular order. A number of its members joined another Islamic party, the newly formed Virtue Party (VP; Fazilet Partisi), but in June 2001 it too was banned.

In August a group led by Abdullah Gül and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (a former mayor of Istanbul [1994–98]) struck out to form the AKP—or AK Party, ak in Turkish also meaning “white” or “clean”—as a democratic, conservative, nonconfessional movement. 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. Nevertheless, the political roots of the AKP and its leadership, some of the party’s political endeavours (including proposed regulation of the display and advertisement of alcohol), and the head scarves worn by some AKP leaders’ wives—including Emine Erdoğan and Hayrünnisa Gül—meant that the AKP was viewed with suspicion by some segments of the Turkish population.

In spite of the fact that the AKP was a relatively new party, it won enough seats in the November 2002 parliamentary elections to earn an absolute majority in the 550-seat parliament. Although Erdoğan was legally barred from serving in parliament or as prime minister because of a 1998 conviction for inciting religious hatred—he had recited a poem that compared mosques to barracks, minarets to bayonets, and the faithful to an army—a constitutional amendment passed in December 2002 effectively removed Erdoğan’s disqualification. After he won a by-election on March 9, 2003, Erdoğan was asked by Pres. Ahmet Necdet Sezer to form a new government, and on May 14, 2003, Erdoğan took office as prime minister. At the AKP’s first general assembly, held in October of that year, members unanimously reelected Erdoğan as the party’s chairman. The next year the AKP was broadly successful in municipal elections.

Early political tensions

Tensions that had been simmering between Turkey’s secularist parties and the AKP were heightened in 2007, when attempts by the parliament to elect Gül to the country’s presidency were blocked by an opposition boycott. In response to the subsequent stalemate, early general elections were held in July of that year and yielded an overwhelming victory for the AKP. Gül was subsequently again put forth as a candidate for president, and on August 28, 2007, he was elected by parliament to the position. Later that year a constitutional referendum changed the election process for the presidency to a direct election.

The AKP and its secular opponents clashed again in early 2008, when parliament passed an amendment that lifted a ban on head scarves—an outward sign of religion long contested in Turkey—on university campuses. Opponents of the AKP renewed their charges that the party posed a threat to Turkish secular order, and in March the constitutional court voted to hear a case that called for the dismantling of the AKP and the banning of dozens of party members, including Erdoğan, from political life for five years. In July 2008 the court ruled narrowly against the party’s closure but sharply reduced its state funding.

Expansion of power and decline in popular support

In September 2010 the AKP achieved a victory when a package of constitutional amendments proposed by the party was approved in a national referendum. The package included changes to make the military more accountable to civilian courts and to increase the legislature’s power to appoint judges. Opponents of the referendum accused the AKP of attempting to increase its power by reducing the independence of the military and the judiciary.

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Following the referendum, the AKP continued to seek constitutional changes. While campaigning for parliamentary elections in early 2011, the party pledged to replace Turkey’s existing constitution with a new one that would strengthen democratic freedoms. In June 2011 the AKP dominated parliamentary elections, securing a strong majority in the Grand National Assembly and a third term as prime minister for Erdoğan. However, the AKP fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to unilaterally write a new constitution.

In August 2014 Erdoğan stepped down as prime minister because AKP rules prevented him from seeking another term in office. He was replaced by Ahmet Davutoğlu, an AKP stalwart who had previously served as foreign minister. Erdoğan remained in public life, running for and winning the largely ceremonial role of president. It soon became apparent, however, that Erdoğan would push for constitutional changes expanding the powers of the presidency. Opponents of Erdoğan and the AKP objected to what they saw as the party’s increasingly authoritarian tendencies, manifested in the government’s suppression of a liberal protest movement in 2013 and its numerous prosecutions of critical journalists.

In June 2015 the AKP failed to win a parliamentary majority for the first time since its formation, receiving just 41 percent of the vote in the general election. The result was widely seen as a rebuke to Erdoğan’s ambitions for an enhanced presidency, but for the AKP the setback proved to be short-lived: the party won back its parliamentary majority in a snap election in November 2015, which was triggered when negotiations to form a governing coalition failed following the June election.

A referendum was held in April 2017 for proposed constitutional changes to expand the role of the president and abolish the post of prime minister. The referendum succeeded by a narrow majority, and the changes were set to take place after the next set of elections. Originally due in November 2019, elections were held early in June 2018. The AKP entered into an alliance with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), and, while the AKP itself received less than half the vote, the alliance won the majority. In the presidential election, Erdoğan was reelected, this time with more than 52 percent of the vote. The changes to the constitution were implemented with the inauguration of the new government in July.

The AKP’s woes only grew during Erdoğan’s second presidential term. It was greeted by an economic downturn, exacerbated by his persistent pressure against interest rate hikes from the central bank. Growing dissatisfaction with the rising costs of living was reflected in the municipal elections held on March 31, 2019, when results showed that it had lost its hold on five of Turkey’s six largest cities, including Ankara and Istanbul, for the first time since the party gained ascendancy in 2004. The results dealt a huge blow to the party’s ability to implement its national agenda, since municipalities in Turkey administer many basic government services.

Discontentment with Erdoğan’s policies and his control of the party led several of the party’s heavyweights to break ranks. In late 2019 Davutoğlu left the party to form the Future Party (Gelecek Partisi); another breakaway party, the Democracy and Progress Party (Demokrasi ve Atılım Partisi; DEVA), was formed in 2020. Both parties advocated a return to a parliamentary system of government and displayed common interest with opposition parties in unseating Erdoğan.