Political Islam and the Welfare (Refah) Party in Turkey

Abstract

The municipal elections of March 27, 1994, the national elections of December 24, 1995, and the local elections of June 2, 1996, in which the Welfare Party (WP) took 33.5 percent of the votes in forty-one districts, have constituted a series of seismic events in the Turkish political landscape. Despite the opposition of the secularist Turkish armed forces and big business, the WP won 21.1 percent of the vote and 158 seats in the 550 seat Turkish parliament and after great maneuvering formed a coalition government with Tansu Ciller of the True Path Party (TPP). This coalition government between the pro-Islamic Necmettin Erbakan and the Europhile Tansu Ciller indicates the duality of Turkish identity and marks a turning point in the history of the Turkish Republic. On June 28, 1996, for the first time, the Turkish republic had a prime minister whose political philosophy was based on Islam. This event marked a psychological break in Turkish history that was the outcome of a search for new relations between state and society. The results of the elections and the negotiation to form a coalition government revealed a society sharply divided along secular versus Islamist sociocultural lines. The WP is one of the main avenues for political Islam to articulate its demands within the public space. It represents a platform for those who seek a change of the secular system as well as for those who demand reforms in the system, within the bureaucratic state structure. This competing, even conflicting, campaign to reorganize the political center and transform the bureaucratic system has mobilized large segments of the population, from Kurdish groups to the newly emerging Anatolian bourgeoisie, in the name of identity and justice. Turkey sets an example of what is possible in integrating Islamic movements into its relatively democratic political system. By accommodating Islamic voices and expanding the boundaries of participation, Turkey has preserved and consolidated its democracy and civil society. Moreover, this accommodation has created the possibility of reimagining Islamic tradition and has thus created a new synthesis. It advances the debate on the relationship between democracy and Islam, on the one hand, and modernity and tradition, on the other. The study of the Islamization of society and politics presupposes a dialectical approach, that is, a top down process through the exercise of state power and a bottom up influence through social associations.' This essay will examine the externalization of Islamic political identity in the general context of state-society relations, the way in which the 1980 military