Formation The AK Party was established by a wide range of politicians of various political parties and a number of new politicians in 2001. The core of the party was formed from the reformist faction of the Islamist
Virtue Party, including people such as
Abdullah Gül and
Bülent Arınç, while 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. Historically the party was described as
liberal conservative,
conservative liberal,
economically liberal,
pro-European, and
center-right. Some members of the
True Path Party, such as
Hüseyin Çelik and
Köksal Toptan, joined the AK Party. Some members, such as
Kürşad Tüzmen or
Ertuğrul Günay, had
nationalist or
center-left backgrounds respectively, while representatives of the nascent, more clearly anti-capitalist 'Muslim left' current were largely excluded. In addition, a large number of people joined a political party for the first time, such as
Ali Babacan,
Nimet Baş,
Egemen Bağış and
Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.
Closure cases Controversies over whether the party remains committed to
secular principles enshrined in the
Turkish constitution have dominated Turkish politics since 2002. Turkey's constitution established the country as a secular state and prohibits any political parties that promote
Islamism or
shariah law. Since coming to power, the party has brought about tighter regulations on
abortion and higher taxes on
alcohol consumption, leading to allegations that it is covertly undermining Turkish secularism. Some activists, commentators, opponents and government officials have accused the party of Islamism. The Justice and Development Party has faced two "closure cases" (attempts to officially ban the party, usually for Islamist practices) in 2002 and 2008. 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 polls at that time. The chief prosecutor charged the Justice and Development Party with 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 an Islamist poem, and thus the party had no standing in elections. The
European Commission had previously criticized Turkey for banning the party's leader from participating in elections. took place in 2007 in support of the
Kemalist reforms, particularly
state secularism and
democracy, against the perceived
Islamization of Turkey under the ruling Justice and Development Party. The party again faced a
closure trial in 2008 brought about by the lifting of a long-standing university ban on headscarves. At an international press conference in Spain, Erdoğan 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 Justice and Development Party and the far-right
Nationalist Movement Party for changing the constitution and the law to lift a ban on women wearing headscarves at state universities. The closure request failed by only one vote, as only six of the 11 judges ruled in favor, with seven required; however, 10 out of 11 judges agreed that the Justice and Development Party had become "a center for anti-secular activities", leading to a loss of 50% of the state funding for the party.
Elections The party has won pluralities in the seven most recent legislative elections, those of
2002,
2007,
2011,
June 2015,
November 2015,
2018 and
2023. The party held a majority of seats for 13 years, but lost it in June 2015, only to regain it in the snap election of November 2015 but then lose it again in 2018. Its past electoral success has been mirrored in the three local elections held since the party's establishment, coming first in
2004,
2009 and
2014 respectively. However, the party lost most of Turkey's biggest cities including
Istanbul and
Ankara in
2019 local elections, which has been attributed to the
Turkish economic crisis, accusations of authoritarianism, as well as alleged government inaction on the
Syrian refugee crisis.
2004 local elections In the local elections of 2004, the AK Party won 42% of the votes, making inroads against the secular
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). However, it left the EPP to join the
Alliance of European Conservatives and Reformists (AECR) in 2013.
2007 elections On 14 April 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. Erdoğan announced on 24 April 2007 that the party had decided to nominate Abdullah Gül as the AK Party candidate in the presidential election. The protests continued over the next several weeks, with over one million reported at an 29 April rally in Istanbul, tens of thousands reported at separate protests on 4 May in
Manisa and
Çanakkale, and one million in
İzmir on 13 May. 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 a significant victory in the rescheduled 22 July 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. Abdullah Gül was elected as the 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 was needed.
2007 constitutional referendum 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.
2009 local elections The
2009 Turkish local elections took place in March 2009, during the
Great Recession. After the success of the AK Party in the 2007 general elections, the party saw a decline in the
2009 Turkish local elections. 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.
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). 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 nationwide 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%.
2011 Turkish general election 2014 elections In the
presidential election of 2014, the AK Party's long time leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was elected president. In the party's
first extraordinary congress, former foreign minister
Ahmet Davutoğlu was unanimously elected unopposed as party leader and took over as prime minister on 28 August 2014. Davutoğlu stepped down as prime minister on 4 May 2016 following policy disagreements with President Erdoğan. Presidential aide Cemil Ertem said to Turkish TV that the country and its economy would stabilize further "when a prime minister more closely aligned with President Erdoğan takes office".
June 2015 general election In the
general election held on 7 June, the AK Party gained 40.87% of the vote and 258 seats in the
Grand National Assembly of Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi, TBMM). Though it still remains the biggest party in Turkey, the AK Party lost its status as the majority party and the power to form a single-party government. Until then it had held this majority without interruption for 13 years since it had come to power in 2002. In this election, the AK Party was pushing to gain 330 seats in the Grand National Assembly so that it could put a series of constitutional changes to a referendum, one of them was to switch Turkey from the current parliamentary government to an American-style executive presidency government. This pursuit met with a series of oppositions and criticism from the opposition parties and their supporters, fearing the measure would give more unchecked power to the current President of Turkey
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, who has drawn fierce criticisms both from home and abroad for his active role in the election, abandoning the traditional presidential role of maintaining a more neutral and impartial position in elections by his predecessors in the office. The result of the Kurdish issues-centered
Peoples' Democratic Party, HDP, breaking through the 10% threshold to achieve 13.12% out of the total votes cast and gaining 80 seats in the Grand National Assembly in the election, which caused the AK Party to lose its parliamentary majority.
November 2015 general election 2018 general election 2019 local elections In the
2019 local elections, the ruling party AK Party lost control of Istanbul and Ankara for the first time in 15 years, as well as five of Turkey's six largest cities. The loss has been widely attributed to AK Party's mismanagement of the
Turkish economic crisis, rising authoritarianism as well as alleged government inaction on the
Syrian refugee crisis. Soon after the elections, the Turkish government ordered a
re-election in Istanbul. The decision led to a downfall on AK Party's popularity and it lost the elections again in June with an even greater margin. The result was seen as a huge blow to Erdoğan, who had once said that if his party 'lost Istanbul, we would lose Turkey.' The opposition's landslide was characterized as the 'beginning of the end' for Erdoğan, with international commentators calling the re-run a huge government miscalculation that can lead to a potential İmamoğlu candidacy in the next scheduled
presidential election.
2023 general election In the
2023 Turkish parliamentary election the Justice and Development Party stood no female candidates in 30
provinces.
2024 local elections This was the first nationwide election since
1977 where the CHP came first in the popular vote, and the first election where the AK Party did not come first since its foundation in 2001. Nevertheless, the AK Party retained a narrow plurality in the number of district mayoralties won due to their alliance with the
Nationalist Movement Party in the
People's Alliance. The AK Party achieved 16,339,771 votes or 35.49% of the vote and lost 15 district mayoralties. Some key mayoralties lost in this election include
Bursa,
Denizli and
Giresun to the CHP and
Ağrı and
Muş to the
DEM. == Ideology and policies ==