ABSTRACT
This chapter presents an overview of the history of the AKP’s emerging hegemony in relation to its Islamist past. It locates the AKP within the history of political Islam in Turkey and compares it with its contemporary counterparts in the Middle East, such as the Ennahda Party in Tunisia. The chapter underlines the linkage between the salient center-periphery social cleavage in Turkey and the success of Islamist parties, particularly the AKP. It discusses how the AKP has utilized this cleavage to build its hegemony around a religiously conservative ideology. The chapter also discusses the reflections of the AKP’s religious ideology on important state institutions such as the educational system and the judiciary.
