The Turkish academic and thinker, Dr. Yassin Aktay, said that the secret mixture for the success of the Turkish Justice and Development Party and its continuation in power lies in several factors that were available to it over other Islamic parties.

The Islamic Party - which was founded on August 14, 2001 - constituted the station of the great transformation in Turkey, as it achieved, under the leadership of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, local, regional and global fame thanks to its political and economic successes.

It also succeeded in being a unique example of the Islamic parties that struggle with the regimes in order to prove their presence in the political arena.

The success of the Justice and Development Party and its continued leadership of Turkey is due to several reasons, which Aktay - who was also a former advisor to the Turkish president on the affairs of the Justice and Development Party - lists in several points, most notably the party's sincerity in political work and its loyalty to the Turkish people, and the personality of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who proved to be a servant of the people. And not his ruler, work and completion of many projects and fight corruption.

Despite not opposing secularism and the principles on which the Turkish Republic was based, the party clings to the Islamic identity of Turkey and seeks for the Islamic nation to be unified within one axis, but it does not have any agenda to restore the Islamic caliphate, says the Turkish guest.

The party was also able to adapt to the secularism of the Turkish state, as it sees that secularism is an adjective that applies to the state and the government, not to individuals, which Erdogan translated in his saying, "The individual is not secular."

According to what Aktay continued, secularism in Turkey was strict and restricted religious freedoms. When any university student was veiled, she was accused of anti-secularism, and he indicated that Turkish secularism was derived from French secularism, which is hostile to religions.

As for American and British secularism, it is a guarantee for the exercise of freedoms and the application of religions.

President Erdogan practices religious rituals and shows them publicly, but does not force others to convert to Islam, and leaves them free to practice their religion freely in Turkey, as the former advisor to the Turkish president says in his interview with the "Mawazine" program.

The party did not cut ties with Israel for these reasons

Despite the rule of the Islamic Justice and Development Party, Turkey enjoys the confidence of the West and its relationship continues with Israel, and the reason - according to the Turkish academic and thinker - is that Ankara agrees and understands with Muslims, and at the same time does not stand against the West, and the Justice and Development Party did not sever the relationship between Turkey and Israel extended since 1949, because he wants to exploit this relationship for the sake of peace and for the benefit of the Palestinians who will be affected by its severance.

He pointed out that the Palestinians do not object to this relationship.

The Turkish Islamic Party constituted a unique case in the Islamic world, because Turkey's conditions differ from the rest of the countries, especially the Arab ones. There has been a democratic practice since the beginning of the fifties that gave an opportunity to all political currents with certain limitations. For example, it was not allowed to establish a Kurdish sectarian party or an Islamic party. Because Islam is the religion of 99% of the Turkish people.

Whereas - the Turkish academic continues - that in Egypt and in other Arab countries there are no real elections, and there are restrictions on political practice, in addition to that tyranny prevents the success of political movements.

It is noteworthy that the Justice and Development Party was founded on August 14, 2001 by a group of young people who defected from the Islamic Virtue Party, benefiting from the Islamic legacy that preceded it, especially the experience of Necmettin Erbakan, who had founded several Islamic parties, including the Welfare Party in 1983 and the Virtue Party. whom the Turkish Constitutional Court banned on June 22, 2001 for carrying out what the court deemed anti-secular activities.

The electoral experience of the Justice and Development Party began on November 3, 2002, when it emerged superior to all existing political currents, as it won a large percentage of the vote and won 363 parliamentary seats.