What has happened in AKP years in Turkey: The condition of Islamism, Turkish Islam synthesis, and Islamist violence

Abstract

AKP (Justice and Development Party) can be accepted as the last and most powerful representative of Islamism in Turkey. The party came to power alone, after the general elections in 2002 and in 2007. Within its first period of power, AKP claimed divergence from its extreme Islamist views and it gained trust among the majority of intellectuals. Furthermore, some socialist and liberal intellectuals supported most claims of AKP, in its first period of power. In the second period, AKP's discourse began to have references to şeria law, more frequently; and finally, it lost the support of liberals and socialists. We witnessed some important and mysterious assassinations in the years 2006 and 2007 before the 2007 elections; and pre-elections period of 2007 was characterised by legal issues, which put AKP in a 'suffering' position, once more. This essay is an eff ort in re-evaluating the tension between Islamism and laicism and some political issues of AKP years of Turkey, including four chosen acts of violence against laicite defenders or non-Muslims