ABSTRACT
The Justice and Development Party (AKP) was established in 2001 as a center-right, social conservative party. AKP'S founders were members of the Islamist Virtue Party, which was banned by Turkey's constitutional court for violating secularist principles of the constitution. The AKP also took steps to tackle the thorny task of subordinating Turkey's powerful military to civilian authority. The democracy initiative would also revitalize Turkey's faltering aspirations to join the European Union. The Democratic Society Party first action after elections in July 2007 was a call for greater access to Ocalan at Imrali. The "Ankara process," which involved negotiations between Turkey, the United States, and Iraqi Kurdish representatives, was overtaken by events. The absence of a northern front forced the United States to focus all its operations in the south, stretching supply lines and making US forces more vulnerable to attack. The United States agreed to list the Kurdistan Worker's Party as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
