In this section, I will provide information about the chapters of my study briefly. The study consists of six chapters, the first of which is "Introduction,"
four main chapters under the titles "Definition and Process of Democratization in Turkey”, “Centre-Right Wing Parties in Turkish Politics”, "The Place and Importance of the Views of Ummah Movement in Turkey”, and “The Establishment of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) and It’s Importance in Turkish Political Life," and the last chapter is titled "Conclusion."
In Chapter One, a general view of the thesis subject, the significance of the study, why it was selected and the pivotal ideas used in the thesis are described.
In this chapter, the researcher also referred to written literature studies, which are directly related to the study, and a general evaluation of these studies has been presented. After this, aims of the study, and methodologies used have been described in detail. At the end of the chapter, difficulties encountered during the study have been explained under the subtitle “Limitations”.
Chapter Two titled “Definition and Process of Democratization in Turkey”
describes the subtitles Democratization Process in Turkish Political History, The Tanzimat Reform Era, Single Party Regime, and Transition to Multi-party System (1945-1950). The aim of this chapter is to explain how the concept of democratization was introduced to politics of Turkey, and the changes and
processes of DP until they came to power. In this chapter, the implications of democratization have been explained. The concept of democratization was first introduced to political discourse during the final years of the Ottoman Empire.
Therefore, information was given from the Tanzimat Reform Era (1839). After this, the process starting from the establishment of the Turkish Republic is described. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Turkish Republic, and Single-party period, doubtlessly has a very important role in Turkish political history. Finally, the period of transition to a multi-party system, one of the most significant turning points of Turkish democratization, has been addressed with relevant examples.
In Chapter Three titled Centre-Right Wing Parties in Turkish Politics, the relationship between Centre-Right-Conservatism is discussed. Within this framework, Definitions of Centre-Right and Conservatism, Definition and Development of Conservatism in Turkey, and Centre-Right Parties, namely the Democratic Party, Justice Party, and Motherland Party, have been scrutinized.
The aim of this chapter is to find out the positive and negative effects of centre-right wing parties, which have a very effective position in Turkish politics, in Republic of Turkey. The chapter initially discusses the relationship between centre-right and conservatism. The reason for this is the fact that one of the common characteristics of centre-right parties in Turkey is the way they define themselves as conservative. Therefore, I aimed to reveal the relationship between the two concepts. In the continuation of the chapter, identities, and narratives of centre-right parties in Turkey have been explained in detail with interviews from the political- conjuncture of the period. One of the most important aims of this chapter is to find an answer to the question "Why did a complete democratization process not take place in Turkey during the period of centre-ring parties, which dominated Turkish politics for a long time?"
Chapter Four titled The Place and Importance of the "Views of Ummah"
Movement in Turkey discusses the subject under National Order Party (1970-71), National Salvation Party, Welfare Party, The Foundation of WP, The Identity of Welfare Party, The Rhetoric of ‘Just Order’, The Electoral Strategy
and Campaign of The Welfare Party, Local Elections in 1994, General Elections in 1995, February 28 Process and Closure of The WP, Virtue Party and Felicity Party subtitles. Views of Ummah Movement is a movement, which started with the establishment of the National Order Party (NOP) under the leadership of Necmettin Erbakan (d.o.d,). NOP became a coalition partner four times between the years 1974 and 1978. After this, in the 1990's, its popularity increased to top levels in many local and general elections under the name of Welfare Party, and, as a result, took a role in many government coalitions. It is an Islamist party, which was able to receive the votes of citizens from all sections of the society during this period. Increasing its popularity and success significantly especially in the 1990's, Welfare Party pursued an unprecedented election strategy and campaign, quite different from other political parties. In addition to this, it also introduced Fair Order rhetoric by developing a very different discourse, which was not only the socio-political program of Welfare party, but also the catalyst of the support from the masses to the party. Furthermore, AKP, which left its mark in the last 15 years of Turkey, and its leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, were also inspired by Views of Ummah Movement and learnt politics through this movement. Therefore, it must be acknowledged that Views of Ummah is a movement that deserves a particular attention. One of the aims of the chapter is to find out the reasons of the success achieved by an Islamist movement in a secular country like Turkey and investigate this movement's positive and negative effects on Turkish democratization.
Several subjects, namely AKP: From Its Establishment until 2007 Presidential Election, Conservative Democrat Identity of AKP, Effects of the Period on the Democratization of Turkey, Presidential Election of 2007 and 27 April E-Memorandum have been discussed in Chapter Five titled The Establishment of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, AKP) and It’s Importance in Turkish Political Life. Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the founding leader of AKP, was involved in Views of Ummah movement since his youth. On 14th August 2001, he continued his political life with a new party and a new political attitude. AKP declared its identity as
"conservative democrat." Erdogan, who is known as a conservative person, is now, with his own words, not only conservative but also a democrat. For this reason, I aimed to throw light on the implications of AKP's conservative democrat discourse in this chapter. In addition to this, great achievements were made in the early years of AKP in terms of the democratization of the country.
Also, at European Union Summit held on 14th December 2012, a specific date was given to Turkey for entering into negotiations. For the first time, such a thing happened in the history of the Turkish Republic. Evaluating the reforms of Turkey during that period, EU's Enlargement Commissioner Gunter Verheugen made the following statement: "Reforms of Turkey over the course of the last 18 months are more than the reforms in the last 80 years." Therefore, one of the primary aims of this chapter is to answer the question "How was AKP able to achieve a success, which could not be achieved since the establishment of Turkish Republic in terms of democratization, in its early years?"
The final chapter presents the overall conclusion with a new analysis.