The Islamization of Turkey under the AKP Rule: The Rise of an Ideology

Abstract

The present article aims to observe how the secular democracy of Turkey is seriously questioned by an Islamist-rooted party - the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which uses propaganda to increase its influence on the population. Shaping the image of Ottoman Turkey, or amending it in accordance with contemporary reality is a difficult task. Despite numerous attempts towards modernization throughout the last two centuries, new communication tools brought by globalization and all the efforts made by Turkey to join the EU, the country‟s image in many European countries is still influenced by perceptions inherited from the time of the Ottoman Empire. In the context of negotiations for accession to the European Union, Turkey delivers evidence of ignorance regarding the steps it needs to follow towards European integration, respectively to the defence and consolidation of the democratic regime, bequeathed by the founder of modern Turkey, Mustafa Kemal.