| Political Islam is a concept that draws attention in political science and international relations. Turkey is a unique model of the various usages of political Islam in a secular state. Moreover, unlike other Muslim countries, Turkey has a comparatively long history since the beginning of the Republic of Turkey. In this respect, the paper will analyze Turkish politics and parties from a historical perspective. I investigate the Democrat, Welfare, and Justice and Development Parties to understand political Islam in Turkey. I ask if these parties had an Islamist agenda and if they exploited Islam for political reasons. In order to find out which objectives of theirs have links to political Islam; I will examine party programs and policy implications of these three parties. Then, I will compare their agendas and try to find evidence of uses of Islam in foreign, education, and economic policies and religious&moral values in their agendas. After analyzing the parties, I will categorize them using the classification of Daniel Brumberg. I expect that this study will show differences among parties and the evolution of political Islam in Turkey over the decades. Also, this study can help by showing Turkey's sui generis characteristics; other Muslim countries can not be compared with Turkish experience with Islam. |
