‘Entwined’ Islamic Political Identity of Turkiye’s Ak Party and its Relevance for the Muslim World
Abstract
The narrative that presents Turkiye’s Justice and Development Party (AK Party) as ‘a model’ for the Muslim world, particularly among Islamists, remains contested, as the party’s identity remains unclear and the notion of the ‘Turkish model’ requires further scrutiny. Therefore, this paper aims to identify the AKP’s identity through the lens of Islamic political identities and to examine its relevance for the Muslim world. Employing a discursive approach, this study analyses the party’s official sources through content analysis and critical discourse analysis, focusing on its discourse and selected policies. This paper argues that the AK Party manifests an ‘entwined’ identity that combines conservative democracy, support of secularism, a pro-European Union attitude, religious sensibility, and post-Islamist characteristics. This identity is shaped by the specific Turkish context and thus is not appropriate for wholesale imitation elsewhere in the Muslim world. Overall, this paper contributes to the literature on Islamism as a significant religio-political phenomenon that shapes the dynamics of the Muslim world in the present century and beyond.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21043/qijis.v14i1.30818
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