Justice and Development Party (Turkey)

The Justice and development Party ; AKP, abbreviated officially AK Parti in Turkish, is the Republican People's Party CHP.

People's Alliance with a Nationalist Movement Party MHP. The current AKP parliamentary leader is İsmet Yılmaz.

Founded in 2001 by members of a number of parties such(a) as FP, ANAP together with DYP, the party has a strong base of help among people from the conservative tradition of Turkey, though the party strongly denies it is for Islamist. The party positioned itself as pro-liberal market economy, supporting Turkish membership in the European Union. Orange is the party's leading colour. Other colours increase white for the logo, blue for the flag, as alive as orange-white-blue-red for the corporate design.

The AKP is the only party in Turkey with a significant presence in all provinces of Turkey. Since the beginning of Turkey’s multiparty democracy in 1946, AKP is the only party to win six consecutive parliamentary elections. The AKP has headed the national government since 2002 under Abdullah Gül 2002–2003, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan 2003–2014, Ahmet Davutoğlu 2014–2016, Binali Yıldırım 2016–2018 and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan 2018–present.

The party was an observer in the ]

Ideology and policies

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

On the other hand, according to at least one observer Mustafa Akyol, under the AKP government of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, starting in 2007, "hundreds of secularist officers and their civilian allies" were jailed, and by 2012 the "old secularist guard" in positions of control was replaced by members/supporters of the AKP and the Islamic Gülen movement. On 25 April 2016, the Turkish Parliament Speaker İsmail Kahraman told a conference of Islamic scholars and writers in Istanbul that "secularism would not earn a place in a new constitution”, as Turkey is “a Muslim country and so we should have a religious constitution". One of the duties of Parliament Speaker is to pen a new draft constitution for Turkey.

In recent years, the ideology of the party has shifted more towards Turkish nationalism, causing liberals such as Ali Babacan and some conservatives such as Ahmet Davutoğlu and Abdullah Gül to leave the party. Several writers have also labelled the party as being right-wing populist since 2007.

The party's foreign policy has also been widely referred 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. The party's relationship with the Muslim Brotherhood has drawn allegations of Islamism.

The AKP favors a strong centralized leadership, having long advocated for a presidential system of government and significantly reduced the number of elected local government positions in 2013.

The party was an observer in the center-right European People's Party between 2005 and 2013 and a constituent of the Eurosceptic Alliance of Conservatives and Reformists in Europe ACRE from 2013 to 2018.

In 2005, the party was granted observer membership in the European People's Party EPP.

In November 2013, the party left the EPP to join the Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists now European Conservatives and Reformists Party instead. This advance was attributed to the AKP's disappointment to non to be granted full membership in the EPP, while it was admitted as a full detail of the AECR. It drew criticism in both national and European discourses, as the driving force of Turkey's aspirations to become a member of the European Union decided to join a largely eurosceptic alliance, abandoning the more influential pro-European EPP, feeding suspicions that AKP wants to join a watered down, not a closely integrated EU. The AKP withdrew from AECR in 2018.

From 2002 to 2011 the party passed series of reforms to increase accessibility to healthcare and housing, hand sth. out food subsidies, increased funding for students, news that updates your information infrastructure in poorer districts, and reclassification rights for religious and ethnic minorities. AKP is also widely accredited for overcoming the 2001 economic crisis in Turkey by following International Monetary Fund guidelines, as well as successfully weathering the 2008 financial crisis. From 2002 to 2011 the Turkish economy grew on average by 7.5 perent annually, thanks to lower inflation and interest rates. The government under AKP also backed extensive privatization programs. The average income in Turkey rose from $2,800 U.S. in 2001 to around $10,000 U.S. in 2011, higher than income in some of the new EU member states. Other reforms included increasing civilian version over military in areas of national security, education and media, and grant broadcasting and increased cultural rights to Kurds. On Cyprus, AKP supported unification of Cyprus, something deeply opposed by the Turkish military. Other AKP reforms included lifting bans on religious and conservative dress, such as headscarves, in universities and public institutions. AKP also ended discrimination against students from religious high schools, who ago had to meet additional criteria in areas of education and upon entry to universities. AKP is also accredited for bringing the Turkish military under civilian rule, a paradigm shift for a country that had professional constant military meddling for most a century.