Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party commemorates the 19th anniversary of its accession to power on November 3, 2002.
The party, which was founded in August 2001 under the leadership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has maintained a distinguished position in the political history of the republic by staying in power for 19 years since the 2002 elections.
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The Justice and Development Party first obtained 34.28 percent of the vote in the general elections in Turkey on November 3, 2002, and won the majority to form a government alone.
But Erdogan was unable to run for prime minister due to the political ban, which was lifted after Abdullah Gul’s government amended Article 312 of the Turkish Penal Code.
After Erdogan was elected as a member of Parliament in the renewal elections held on March 8, 2003, the Gul government resigned, and President Ahmet Necdet Sezer Erdogan was assigned the task of forming the new government.
On March 15, 2003, Erdogan established the 59th government in the history of the Turkish Republic, and the second in the path of the “Justice and Development Party”, and continued as Prime Minister until 2014.
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The party formed the government on its own after its first general election during its political career.
He followed this up by winning the local elections in 2004 with 41.7 percent, thus winning the presidency of 1,950 municipalities across the country.
In the 2007 general elections, the party received 46.58 percent of the vote and was able to consolidate its power and obtain representatives from 80 states.
That is, all Turkish states except “Tung Ili” (East), and at the end of President Sezer’s term, Gul ran for the presidency.
On April 27, 2007, the Turkish army issued a statement asserting that it was the “protector of secularism” in the country.
On the other hand, the “Justice and Development” warned the army against interfering in politics, and demanded that it remain under the command of the leadership.
These developments took place before August 28, 2007, after the parliament voted in favor of electing Gül, one of the party’s founders, to the post of the eleventh president of the republic.
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The party won first place with the most votes in the 2009 local elections.
And 57.88 percent of those who voted on a referendum related to amendments to the 1982 constitution voted in favor of the Justice and Development Party in 2010.
During the subsequent elections, he managed to increase his popular base, obtaining 49.53 percent of the vote in the 2011 general elections, and form the 61st government.
He also took his last electoral exam in the first round of Erdogan’s presidency, by running in the 2014 local administration elections, in which he obtained 45.60 percent of the vote.
Erdogan was elected President of the Republic on August 10, 2014, through direct elections by the people.
He won 52 percent of the vote to become the 12th president and the first to be elected directly by the people.
After his election, the Justice and Development Party continued his career, headed by his representative in Parliament, Ahmet Davutoglu.
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Before the end of its first year in office, the party ran in general elections, winning the formation of a government single-handedly following the snap elections held on November 1, 2015.
With Bin Ali Yildirim assuming the position of Prime Minister, the Justice, and Development Party, after 15 years of its founding, turned into a long-standing political party that provided Turkey with two republican presidents and 4 prime ministers.
On April 16, 2017, Turkey witnessed a referendum on constitutional amendments, during which more than half of the participants voted “yes”.
These amendments opened the door for Turkey to transition to the presidential system, thus Erdogan will continue his position in the presidency.
Binali Yildirim became the last prime minister in the country’s parliamentary system.
