Islamist: Saadet Partisi (Felicity Party)
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- Conservative democrat or moderate Islamist: AK Party
- Secular: CHP
- Nationalist: MHP, BBP
- : Young Party
- Central-Right: Democrat Party (merged former True Path and Homeland Party)
- Kurds: DEHAP, HADEP, DTP, BDP (all the same)
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Islamist: Saadet Partisi (Felicity Party) Political Islamism in Turkey started in 1970s. It’s leader, Necmettin Erbakan, was one of the coalition partners when Turkey intervened Cyprus in 1974. But Islamism gained momentum after 1980 coup. Islam was instilled into the Turkish society as a political view to replace the socialist ideology. Felicity Party comes from the tradition of Welfare Party, which was ousted by the army in 1997 by a National Security Council decision. I think that was a turning point in political Islamist tradition. After that, reformist branch of the Welfare Party (also followers of Erbakan) founded AK Party in 2001. Even though it’s not a significant political party in terms of vote percentage now (increased to 2.89% in 2007), it has a very firm organization (Milli Gorus, “National View”) among it’s voters. Erbakan is in very poor health and kept in house custody due to a charge against him over corruption during his tenure. Conservative democrat or moderate Islamist: AK Party Founded by former Welfare Party members, AK Party denied that it’s the continuation of Milli Gorus. I think one of the main reasons behind the foundation of AK Party was the decision of the European Court of Human Rights that approved the dissolution of the Welfare Party. Without external support and under strict military control at home, moderate Islamists had to find a new ideology: Islamist-rooted, liberal in economy and pragmatic in politics. AK Party gained support of various factions of the Turkish society, but it’s main ideology bases on conservative-nationalist political culture of Anatolia. Secular: CHP CHP can be considered as the only political party whose main political agenda is secularism. The problem with CHP is that it does not really offer alternative policies to AKP. It does not address concerns of low socio-economic classes. The general view of CHP is that it’s an elite political party, in alliance with the army and high judiciary. There is also a problem with the leadership of CHP. Deniz Baykal has never been the PM of Turkey. And it does not look like he will relinquish power of CHP anytime soon. Recently, some famous MPs of CHP started to visit poor people to dismantle CHP’s elitist image but I don’t think that they will be able to reach to AK Party’s conservative voters. Nationalist: MHP, BBP MHP is the mainstream nationalist political party in Turkey. Alparslan Turkes died in 1997 and low-profile Devlet Bahceli replaced him. He is good in keeping the firm organization in check. The main ideology of MHP is the mixture of Turkish nationalism and Islam. Vote percentage in 2007 was around 14%. BBP, is a minor nationalist party but it’s organization is also very firm. It’s ex-leader, Muhsin Yazicioglu, died in a suspicious helicopter crash during 2007 elections campaign. He was known as a politician who had a broad network within the State. BBP is more religious leaned compared to MHP. For MHP, being Turk comes before being Muslim. ???: Young Party Crazy, an extremely corrupted businessman called Cem Uzan founded this party before 2002 elections. Without an ideology or political view, and by organizing concerts and making stupid political promises he got above 7% of the votes. He used to own newspapers, banks, huge money in Switzerland etc. AKP started a major crackdown on Uzan. But still, he got around 3% of the votes in 2007. AKP’s crackdown intensified. Uzan is a refugee in Paris now. Central-Right: Democrat Party (merged former True Path and Homeland Party) True Path Party and Homeland Party are the two parties, which used be the mainstream center-right parties of Turkish politics. But they were swept out after 2001 crisis and recently merged under Democrat Party. Ideologically, it can be considered as the main rival of the AK Party. But I don’t think that it poses a significant challenge to AKP because AKP is constantly shifting toward center and there is nothing in Democrat Party that can attract AKP voters for the moment. Kurds: DEHAP, HADEP, DTP, BDP (all the same) No need to say, under heavy PKK influence. DTP vote percentage is around 5-7% in overall Turkey, which is not enough to send members to Parliament. That’s why DTP members went to the elections as independent candidates and formed DTP in the parliament. I am observing a slight change in DTP’s (now BDP) stance. They are trying to move toward a nation-wide political party (in ideological terms). They say BDP will be a left-wing party rather than an ethnic Kurdish one. Let’s see. Also, I think alternative Kurdish politicians will speak up in the next elections. There are above 50 political parties in Turkey but these are the ones that are politically important. 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