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Justice and Development Party (Turkey)

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Justice and Development Party
LeaderRecep Tayyip Erdoğan
FoundedAugust 14, 2001 (2001-08-14)
HeadquartersNo. 202 Balgat, Ankara, Turkey
Youth wingAK Gençlik
IdeologyConservatism
Economic liberalism
Social conservatism
Political positionCenter-right[1]
European affiliationEuropean People's Party (observer)
ColoursYellow, orange, blue, white
Parliament:
327 / 550
Municipalities:
1,452 / 2,919
Website
Official Site

The Justice and Development Party (Turkish: Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi), abbreviated JDP in English and AK PARTİ in Turkish, is a centre-right conservative political party in Turkey. The party is the largest in Turkey, with 327 members of parliament. Its leader, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is Prime Minister, while fellow former party member and PM Abdullah Gül is President.

Founded in 2001 by members of a number of existing 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 early general elections 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 party in the Turkish political spectrum that advocates a conservative social agenda and a liberal market economy that includes Turkish membership in the European Union.[2] In 2005, the party was granted observer membership in the European People's Party.

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 (Turkish: yenilikçiler) of the Islamist Virtue Party, including people such as Abdullah Gül and Bülent Arınç. 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 backgrounds while representatives of the nascent 'Muslim left' current were largely excluded.[3] 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

According to former minister Hüseyin Çelik, "the AK Party is a conservative democratic party [but] the AK Party's conservatism is limited to moral and social issues." The Economist characterizes the party as "mildly Islamist" while Reuters refers to the AKP as "Islamist-rooted" and "Islamic-leaning." The party objects to the frequent descriptions of it in the Western media as Islamist. In March 2010 Çelik complained that "in the Western press, when the AK Party administration... 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."[4]

History

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.

File:S7000218.JPG
Party leader Erdoğan on a poster thanking the people for the election results.

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 2004.

Influential business publications such as The Economist consider the AK Party's government the most successful in Turkey in decades.[5]

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.

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.

2007 elections

Voter base by monthly household income. AK Party is the largest party in group 1, 2, 3 and 4, while CHP is the largest in group 5, the richest 20% of Turkey.

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.[6] Erdoğan announced on April 24, 2007 that the party had decided to nominate Abdullah Gül as the AK Party candidate in the presidential election.[7] The protests continued over the next several weeks, with over one million reported at an April 29 rally in Istanbul,[8][9] tens of thousands reported at separate protests on May 4 in Manisa and Çanakkale,[10] and one million in İzmir on May 13.[11]

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.[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.[12] 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

A rally of the Justice and Development Party in 2007

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.

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 opinion polls at that time. The chief prosecutor accused the Justice and Development Party of 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 a poem. The European Commission had already criticised Turkey for banning the party's leader from participating in elections.[13] The court gave its verdict on 9 July 2009, rejecting the demand, and the case against the AK Party was terminated.[14]

At an international press conference in Spain, the prime minister 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 [one the] right to ban it? Could you bring prohibitions to symbols?" These statements led to a joint proposal of the AK Party and the MHP for changing the constitution and the law to lift a ban on young women wearing headscarves at universities. This was one of the main reasons for Turkey's chief prosecutor, Abdurrahman Yalçınkaya, to ask the Constitutional Court to close the AK Party.[15][16][17] A court-appointed rapporteur, Osman Can, advocated in his report that the Court should reject the closure case.[18] Four members voted to cut public funding for the party, while the court's chairman voted against closing it down. The court rejected the demands of the prosecutor and did not ban the party.[15] The European Union welcomed the decision by Turkey's highest court not to ban the ruling AK Party.[19]

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.[20]

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).[21] 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%.

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
June 12, 2011 Recep Tayyip Erdoğan 21,442,206 49.83% 326

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

Referendums

Election date Party leader Yes vote Percentage No vote Percentage AK Party's support
October 21, 2007 Recep Tayyip Erdoğan 19,422,714 68.95 8,744,947 31.05 Yes vote
September 12, 2010 Recep Tayyip Erdoğan 21,787,244 57.88 15,856,79 42.12 Yes vote

Footnotes

  • ^† JDP is the official one according to the party itself, as documented in the third article of the party charter, while AKP is mostly preferred by its opponents; the supporters prefer "AK Party" since the word "ak" in Turkish means "white", "clean", or "unblemished," lending a positive impression.[22][23] The Chief Public Prosecutor of the Supreme Court of Appeals initially used "AKP", but after an objection from the party,[24] "AKP" was replaced with "Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi" (without abbreviation) in documents.

References

  1. ^
    • Jones, Gareth (22 July 2007). "Turkey goes to polls amid violence and fears of Islamism". The Independent. Retrieved 28 February 2011.
    • "Q&A: How will the result change Turkey?". BBC News. 15 November 2002. Retrieved 28 February 2011.
    • Strauss, Delphine (21 May 2010). "Turkish Gandhi chosen to lead opposition". Financial Times. Retrieved 28 February 2011.
    • Jones, Gareth (21 May 2007). "Turkey's AK Party struggles to hold center ground". Reuters. Retrieved 28 February 2011.
    • "Turkish parliament votes on Gul presidency - again". Daily Mail. 20 August 2007. Retrieved 28 February 2011.
    • "The Prime Minister of Turkey must resist the temptation of triumphalism". The Times. 24 July 2007. Retrieved 28 February 2011.
  2. ^ a b "New to Turkish politics? Here's a rough primer". Turkish Daily News. 2007-07-22. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
  3. ^ http://haber.gazetevatan.com/0/122728/4/Yazarlar/73
  4. ^ AKP explains charter changes, slams foreign descriptions Hürriyet Daily News 28 March 2010
  5. ^ "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)
  6. ^ "Secular rally targets Turkish PM," BBC News, April 14, 2007.
  7. ^ "Turkey's ruling party announces FM Gul as presidential candidate," Xinhua, April 24, 2007.
  8. ^ "More than one million rally in Turkey for secularism, democracy". Agence France-Presse. Retrieved 2007-04-29.
  9. ^ "One million Turks rally against government". Reuters. 2007-04-29. Retrieved 2007-04-30.
  10. ^ "Saylan: Manisa mitingi önemli". Milliyet (in Turkish). Retrieved 2007-05-04.
  11. ^ "Turks protest ahead of early elections". Swissinfo. Archived from the original on September 30, 2007. Retrieved 2007-05-13.
  12. ^ "Turkey: 22 July 2007 - Election Results". BBC Turkish. 2007-07-23. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
  13. ^ "Turkey mulls banning leading party before elections". EurActiv. October 23, 2002. Retrieved February 15, 2011.
  14. ^ "AKP hakkında açılan kapatma davası düştü". CNN Türk. July 9, 2009. Retrieved July 9, 2009.
  15. ^ a b Gungor, Izgi (2008-07-22). "From landmark success to closure: AKP's journey". Turkish Daily News. Retrieved 2008-08-11.
  16. ^ "Closure case against ruling party creates shockwaves". Today's Zaman. 2008-03-15. Retrieved 2008-11-16.
  17. ^ "Full text of testimony". Milliyet (in Turkish). Retrieved 2008-09-04.
  18. ^ "Constitutional Court Takes Up The AKP Closure Case". Bianet. 2008-07-28. Retrieved 2008-09-04. The rapporteur's conclusion was to reject the closure case.
  19. ^ Tavernise, Sabrina (July 31, 2008). "Turkish Court Calls Ruling Party Constitutional". New York Times. Retrieved 2008-11-25. {{cite news}}: |section= ignored (help); Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
  20. ^ "Turkish local elections, 2009". NTV-MSNBC. 2009-03-29. Retrieved 2009-03-29. {{cite news}}: |section= ignored (help)
  21. ^ "AKP'nin Anayasa hedefi 15 madde". NTVMSNBC. 2009-02-17. Retrieved 2009-02-17.
  22. ^ "Less than white?". The Economist. 2008-09-18. Retrieved 2008-09-22.
  23. ^ "AK Parti mi, AKP mi? (AK Parti or AKP?)". Habertürk (in Turkish). 2009-06-05. Retrieved 2009-08-10.
  24. ^ Ebru Toktar and Ersin Bal. "Laiklik anlayışlarımız farklı" Template:Tr icon. Akşam, 2008-05-07.
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