The AKP’s Policy towards Internal Issues in Turkey 2002 – 2007: (Historical Study)

The Justice and Development Party, the ruling party in Turkey right now, isconsidered one of the main parties of moderate Islamist orientation that aim toachieve a balance between secular democratic and Islamist orientations. That iswhy we have chosen this party as the subject of our study by looking at thecircumstances and causes of its emergence as well as its new political orientationstowards the most prominent internal affairs in Turkey. The study consists of anintroduction, three sections, and a conclusion. The first section focuses on the mostoutstanding internal political developments in Turkey until the emergence of theAKP. The second one deals with the issue of the appearance of the AKP on theTurkish political scene in terms of circumstances of emergence, its politicalprojects, and then how it came to power. The third section tackles the trends of theAKP, after its arrival to power, towards the internal political affairs in Turkeyincluding the attitude to secularism, the military establishment, its economicorientation, headscarf (Hijab) question, and the Kurdish issue.