The Process of Evolution in the Islamist Trend in Turkey: From Idealism to Realism

Consecutive successes of the Justice and Development Party in Turkish parliamentary elections in the first decade of the third millennium have raised many questions within the political and academic circles in some countries. Evolution of the Islamist current in the period after the establishment of the secular system in the country has been among the questions that has attracted the attention of these circles. The most striking issue for the scholar is how long the victorious Islamist current in the past decade could be considered an extension of the same Islamist current in the decades after the establishment of the secular system in the country. More importantly, how different the Justice and Development Party’s Islamist current is from the Islamist current in the past? Is the discourse offered by the Islamist current in the 1990s a continuation of the same discourse of the past Islamist current, or has a totally new discourse appeared in Turkey’s political scene?