From the ashes of virtue, a promise of light: The transformation of political Islam in Turkey

Third World Quarterly

Volumn 25, Issue 2, 2004, Pages 339-358

  Mecham, R Quinn ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

CIVIL SOCIETY; ELECTION; ISLAMISM; PARTY POLITICS; POLITICAL POWER; POLITICAL REFORM; POLITICAL SYSTEM;

EURASIA; TURKEY;

EID: 33746453233     PISSN: 01436597     EISSN: 13602241     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/0143659042000174842     Document Type: Article

References (14)

1. State Institute of Statistics. Milletvekili Genel Seçimi Sonuçlari 18.04.1999 (Results of the General Election of Representatives 18/4/1999), Ankara: State Institute of Statistics, 2001.
2. The National Salvation Party won 11.8% of the vote at its debut in the national elections of 1973, an amount high enough to surprise many observers. The party's national support dropped slightly to 8.7% in the national elections of 1977, It participated in a series of three coalition governments, courted because its seats held the key to a majority coalition, The party's supporters included a considerable segment of small businessmen from Central Anatolia and recent urban immigrants from the countryside. MY Geyikdaǧi, Political Parties in Turkey: The Role of Islam, New York: Praeger, 1984.
3. See also Binnaz. Toprak, 'Politicisation of Islam in a secular state: the National Salvation Party in Turkey', in Said Amir Arjomand (ed). From Nationalism to Revolutionary Islam. London: Macmillan, 1984:
4. Ali Y Saribay, Türkiye'de Moderneleşme Din ve Parti Politikasi: Milli Selâmet Partisi Örnekolayi, Istanbul: Alan Yayinlari, 1985:
5. and Sencer Ayata. 'The rise of Islamic fundamentalism and its institutional framework', in Atila Eralp, Muharram Tünay & Birol Yeşilada. The Political and Socioeconomic Transformation of Turkey, Westport, CT: Praeger, 1993.
6. Gülalp argues that the National Salvation Party and Welfare Party shared the distinctive characteristic of articulating the need for a spiritual order (manevi düzen) in society that defined both parties as the Islamic choice. However, differences between the parties include a shift in economic policy from state to private initiative, separate constituencies (from conservative religious orders to middle class pro fessionals and marginal urban workers), and a move to incorporate some of the equality ideology of the left, Haldun Gülalp, 'Political Islam in Turkey: The rise and fall of the Refah Party', Muslim World, 99 (1), pp 24-36.
7. An extensive discussion of the Turkish organisation Hizbullah is found in Ruşen Çakir. Derin Hizbullah: Islamci Şiddetin Geleceǧi. Istanbul: Metis Yayinlari, 2001.
8. The second most prominent of the radical violent Islamist organisations in Turkey is a group known as the Islamic Front of Fighters of the Great East (IBDA-C).
9. See also Marvine Howe, Turkey Today: A Nation Divided over Islam's Revival, Boulder, CO: Westview, 2000.
10. The 'national viewpoint' vision was also a component of National Salvation Party ideology and articulated in Necmettin Erbakan, Millî Görüş, Istanbul: Dergâh Yayinlari, 1975. In the early years of Welfare, the party distinguished itself rhetorically by arguing that there were only two parties in Turkey: Welfare, and all those who unite in 'aping' the West.
11. See Ergun Özbudun, Contemporary Turkish Politics: Challenges to Democratic Consolidation, Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner, 2000.
12. These committees were modelled on the Muslim rosary (tesbih), with 33 members paralleling the 33 heads of the rosary. Each district likewise had a party committee of 33 members. M Hakan Yavuz. 'Political Islam and the Welfare (Refah) Party in Turkey'. Comparative Politics, 30 (1), 1997, pp 76-77.
13. These committees were modelled on the Muslim rosary (tesbih), with 33 members paralleling the 33 heads of the rosary. Each district likewise had a party committee of 33 members. M Hakan Yavuz. 'Political Islam and the Welfare (Refah) Party in Turkey. Comparative Politics, 30 (1), 1997, pp 76-77. See ibid.
14. In 1994 Welfare captured over 200 municipalities across Turkey. This victory was extended to 325 municipalities by 1998. For an assessment of Welfare's municipal performance see Uǧur Akinci, 'Municipal radicalism of political Islam in Turkey'. Middle East Journal, 53 (1). 1999. pp 76-91.