The politics of Turkey take place in the framework of a constitutional republic and presidential system, with various levels and branches of power.
The Justice and Development Party, abbreviated officially as AK Party in English, is a political party in Turkey self-describing as conservative-democratic. It has been the ruling party of Turkey since 2003. Third-party sources often refer to the party as national conservative, social conservative, right-wing populist and as espousing neo-Ottomanism. The party is generally regarded as being right-wing on the political spectrum, although some sources have described it as far-right since 2011. It is one of the two major parties of contemporary Turkey along with the Republican People's Party (CHP).
Abdullah Gül is a Turkish politician who served as the 11th president of Turkey, in office from 2007 to 2014. He previously served for four months as Prime Minister from 2002 to 2003, and concurrently served as both Deputy Prime Minister and as Foreign Minister between 2003 and 2007. He is currently a member of the Advisory Panel for the President of the Islamic Development Bank.
The Welfare Party was an Islamist political party in Turkey. It was founded by Ali Türkmen, Ahmet Tekdal, and Necmettin Erbakan in Ankara in 1983 as heir to two earlier parties, National Order Party (MNP) and National Salvation Party (MSP), which were banned from politics. The RP participated in mayoral elections at that time and won in three cities Konya, Şanlıurfa, and Van. Their vote percentage was approximately 5%.
The Felicity Party is an Islamist Turkish political party. It was founded in 2001, and mainly supported by conservative Muslims in Turkey.
The National Salvation Party was an Islamist political party in Turkey, founded on 11 October 1972 as the successor of the banned National Order Party. The party was formed by a core group of working cadres of the now banned MNP, with Süleyman Arif Emre serving as the registered founding chairman. Given the banning of the MNP by the staunchly secular state, only 19 individuals were ready to form the party. Necmettin Erbakan, who took part in the formation of the party, officially joined the party in May 1973, taking over the reins of the party in October 1973. The party grew more popular and in 1973 elections it gained 11.8% of votes, gaining 48 seats in the Turkish Grand National Assembly. In the 1977 elections, it gained 8.56% of votes and won 24 seats. In 1974 it formed the coalition government with the secularist Republican People's Party (CHP) of Bülent Ecevit. MSP was closed down after the 1980 military coup.
Merve Safa Kavakcı is a Turkish politician, who was elected as a Virtue Party deputy for Istanbul on 18 April 1999. She served as the Turkish ambassador to Malaysia from 2017 but was recalled to Ankara following the appointment of Emir Salim Yüksel as the Turkish Ambassador to Malaysia in June 2022.
The Constitutional Court of Turkey is the highest legal body for constitutional review in Turkey. It "examines the constitutionality, in respect of both form and substance, of laws, decrees having the force of law, and the Rules of Procedure of the Turkish Grand National Assembly". If necessary, it also functions as the Supreme Criminal Court to hear any cases raised about the President, Vice President, members of the Cabinet, or judges of the high courts. In addition to those functions, it examines individual applications on the grounds that one of the fundamental rights and freedoms within the scope of the European Convention on Human Rights which are guaranteed by the Constitution has been violated by public authorities.
The Labour Party is a communist party in Turkey. Its chairperson is Selma Gürkan. The party was founded as Emek Partisi in 1996. Due to its ban by the Constitutional Court, it was refounded with the name Emeğin Partisi, the same year. In 2005, the name "Emek Partisi" was reinstalled after the European Court of Human Rights held the ban was a violation of Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
Millî Görüş or Erbakanism is a religious-political movement and the ideology of a series of Islamist parties inspired by Necmettin Erbakan. It argues that Turkey can develop with its own human and economic power by protecting its core values and moving forward with faster steps by rivaling European imperialism. Multiple political parties in Turkey adopted the ideology, such as New Welfare Party, Felicity Party, Virtue Party, Welfare Party, National Salvation Party and National Order Party.
In Turkey, secularism or laicism was first introduced with the 1928 amendment of the Constitution of 1924, which removed the provision declaring that the "Religion of the State is Islam", and with the later reforms of Turkey's first president Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, which set the administrative and political requirements to create a modern, democratic, secular state, aligned with Kemalism.
Abdüllatif Şener is a Turkish politician. He was Minister of Finance of Turkey from 1996 to 1997 and Deputy Prime Minister from 2002 to 2007, under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Mehmet Recai Kutan is a Turkish politician and the former leader of Felicity Party (SP).
Leyla Şahin v. Turkey was a 2004 European Court of Human Rights case brought against Turkey by a medical student challenging a Turkish law which bans wearing the Islamic headscarf at universities and other educational and state institutions. The Court upheld the Turkish law by 16 votes to 1.
Numan Kurtulmuş is a Turkish politician and academic who is currently the speaker of the Grand National Assembly.
Mehmet Hatip Dicle, is a Kurdish politician from Turkey. He was a member of the Democracy Party, then of the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP).
The December 2009 Kurdish protests in Turkey were five days of protests in Turkey that ensued after a December 11, 2009 ruling by the Constitutional Court of Turkey that banned the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP), after finding them guilty of having links to the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and spreading "terrorist propaganda."
The Lost Trillion Case, also known as the Missing Trillion Case, was an embezzlement scandal in Turkey involving the use of forged documents by the Welfare Party executives to prevent the return of Treasury grants in amount of around one trillion lira, i.e. one million ₺ in today's currency following the ban of the party in 1998. Party leader and former prime minister Necmettin Erbakan as well as 68 party officials received prison sentences after a court trial, although the former's was commuted to house arrest.
Mehmet Metiner is a Turkish-Kurdish journalist, writer, and politician. He started his political career as an Islamist but joined many parties during his career.
