AN EVALUATION OF THE JUSTICE AND DEVELOPMENT PARTY'S CONCEPTION OF CONSERVATISM

Conservatism, has not been sufficiently understood both conceptually and thought in Turkey. The conservative thought, which found its ground with the power of the Democratic Party of 1930 and the 1950 Democratic Party in the period beginning with the Republican era, found a significant response both in political and social terms with the 2002 Justice and Development Party (AK Party). The AK Party came out of the national view and gained power in 2002. The AK Party, which had made different discourses from the national view movement, was also in a different understanding from a conservative perspective. However, there were changes in the party's thought of conservatism in the process. The aim of this study is to reveal that the conservative discourse adopted by the AK Party as a different understanding has changed after 2007. As a matter of fact, when the AK Party came to power, it put forward the identity of the democratic conservative and attached importance to secularism, democracy and freedom as well as the family, the individual, society, history and religion, which are the basic elements of conservative thought. In this respect, the Kurdish problem in domestic politics, zero problems with neighbors in foreign policy and important policies regarding full membership to the EU were carried out. However, after 2007, he became more introverted and nationalist conservative rather than the existing democratic conservative. Together with this identity, conservative changes are observed in the context of political discourse in both domestic and foreign policy. From this point of view, the discourse of AK Party, religion, which is the basis of conservative thought, family, individual and society, elements such as freedom and democracy in the context of changes in domestic and foreign policy are examined