The transformation of Islamist politics in Turkey from movement of National Idea (Milli Görüş) to Justice and Development Party

The Pan-Islamism movement, which emerged in the last period of the Ottoman Empire, did not directly transform into a political party like other contemporary movements, yet had an impact on political parties at several levels until today. The institutional structure in which this impact is seen in the historical course of Islamist politics has been the National Vision Movement (NVM). This political tradition undertook the representation of conservative tendencies that started to become visible with their political demands after the transition to a multi-party system. This tradition, which preserved its integrity until 2001, experienced a disintegration that resulted in the establishment of the Justice and Development Party (JDP). As an actor in the institutionalization of Islamist politics in Turkey, this process of disintegration in the NVM tradition constitutes the subject of this research. The issue of why the disintegration process that resulted in the establishment of the JDP could not be managed despite the fact that the NVM tradition, which represents a long historical political experience, preserves its integrity in the face of many political problems, has been analyzed with an institutionalist approach. The research is important in terms of understanding the history of Islamist politics in the context of political institutionalization and how Islamist politics has undergone a transformation based on the development of Turkish political life in the historical process. The socio-political environment in which the tradition of Islamist politics developed and the relationship between the NVM and the JDP, which continues to do politics in the political path created by this tradition, have been discussed on the axes of continuity and disintegration. The conservative democracy discourse, which stemmed from the deepening of the legitimacy crisis experienced by NVM against the institutional political center with the postmodern military intervention of February 28, the process of institutional separation of the JDP from the NVM and the search for a legitimate political identity against the institutional center, has been examined in the context of political institutionalization. In order to ensure that the research is carried out with a holistic perspective, in-depth interviews were made with individuals who witnessed the disintegration process, with a view to allowing access to first-hand supportive qualitative data using the historical comparative research method.