February 11, 2012

Should the Hizmet movement form a political party?

İhsan Yılmaz

Despite the image some have tried to create, we have been writing that the Justice and Development (AKP) and the Hizmet movement are two different entities.

One of them is a political party and the other is a faith-based civil society actor. They have, of course, been on the same page with regard to many sensitive and crucial issues, such as the EU process, democratization, transparency, accountability and so on. However, the movement has always been at a critical distance to both daily political activities and to the AKP; its support has been in principle. Whenever the movement perceived that the AKP was either reluctant on or deviating from the path of democratization, the movement has criticized it. Yet, whenever the movement criticizes the AKP, the party’s staunch supporters and those who follow it blindly in the Turkish media challenge the movement and ask it to form a political party.