The New Welfare Party ( tr, Yeniden Refah Partisi, YRP) is an Islamist political party in

Turkey Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...

. It is the successor of the

Welfare Party The Welfare Party ( tr, Refah Partisi, RP) was an Islamist political party in Turkey. It was founded by Ali Türkmen, Ahmet Tekdal, and Necmettin Erbakan in Ankara in 1983 as heir to two earlier parties, National Order Party (MNP) and Nationa ...

, which was

banned A ban is a formal or informal prohibition of something. Bans are formed for the prohibition of activities within a certain political territory. Some bans in commerce are referred to as embargoes. ''Ban'' is also used as a verb similar in meaning ...

in 1998. They adopt the National Outlook (Turkish: ''"Millî Görüş"'') ideology.

History

It was founded by former

Prime Minister of Turkey The prime minister of the Republic of Turkey (Turkish language, Turkish: ''Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Başbakanı'') was the head of government of the Republic of Turkey from 1920 to 2018, who led a political coalition in the Grand National Assembly of ...

Necmettin Erbakan Necmettin Erbakan (29 October 1926 – 27 February 2011) was a Turkish politician, engineer, and academic who was the Prime Minister of Turkey from 1996 to 1997. He was pressured by the military to step down as prime minister and was later ba ...

's son

Fatih Erbakan Muhammed Ali Fatih Erbakan (born January 1, 1979, Ankara) is a Turkish engineer and politician who is the founder and leader of the New Welfare Party (YRP). A son of Necmettin Erbakan, the former Prime Minister of Turkey who led the YRP's pre ...

on 23 November 2018. On 21 January 2023, leader of the far-right Danish political party Stram Kurs,

Rasmus Paludan Rasmus Paludan (born 2 January 1982) is a Danish-Swedish politician, lawyer and far-right extremist. He is the leader of the far-right Danish political party Stram Kurs ("Straight Course" or "Hard Line"), which he founded in 2017. Paludan ha ...

was permitted to burn a

Quran The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Classical Arabic, Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation in Islam, revelation from God in Islam, ...

outside the Turkish embassy in Stockholm. Following the incident, the party protested

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

in front of the Swedish Consulate-General in Istanbul. Initially a critic of the AKP regime, in 2023 the party announced Fatih Erbakan's candidacy for the

presidential election A presidential election is the election of any head of state whose official title is President. Elections by country Albania The president of Albania is elected by the Assembly of Albania who are elected by the Albanian public. Chile The pre ...

. However, the party later backtracked and instead joined the People's Alliance on March 24, 2023.

Controversies

The party's Istanbul Youth-Wing’s Vice President,

Sadık Tunç Sadiq is an Arabic masculine given name. Originally a word in Arabic صديق which is translated as ''friend''. The Arabic word for friend is derived from the root ''sdk'' صدق which often refers to honesty, sincerity, truth or loyalty. Variants ...

, made controversial comments on the 97th anniversary of the abolishment of the caliphate in Turkey: "The days when we will declare

Sharia Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

-e-Ghara-e-Muhammadiyyah are coming closer." The

Turkish Constitution The Constitution of the Republic of Turkey ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti Anayasası), also known as the Constitution of 1982, is Turkey's fundamental law. It establishes the organization of the government and sets out the principles and rules of ...

forbids proposing or calling the abandonment of Secularism (Laicism), or the abandonment of the law preventing it itself, alongside making the first four articles of the constitution untouchable and unchangeable. Their predecessor was dissolved and banned by the

Constitutional Court of Turkey The Constitutional Court of Turkey ( tr, , sometimes abbreviated as ''AYM'') is the highest legal body for constitutional review in Turkey. It "examines the constitutionality, in respect of both form and substance, of laws, decrees having the for ...

in 1998 due to their Islamist agenda under the secularist post-modern coup regime. After the event, Sadık Tunç deleted his tweet on Twitter about the topic. The chairperson and founder of the newly party, Fatih Erbakan, is also an open supporter of the anti-vax movement during the COVID Pandemic in Turkey. He claimed

COVID-19 vaccines A COVID19 vaccine is a vaccine intended to provide acquired immunity against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS‑CoV‑2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID19). Prior to the COVID19 pandemic, an est ...

could lead to people giving birth to "half-human, half-monkey" children. He also openly but briefly brought up and discussed this topic during several occasions on live-TV interviews.

Policies

The party was founded with the slogan "We are here for our nation". They specified that their main goals are "First morality and spirituality, then to design the new world order under the leadership of Turkey." Fatih Erbakan has stated that the new party would replace the current system by a new

presidential system A presidential system, or single executive system, is a form of government in which a head of government, typically with the title of president, leads an executive branch that is separate from the legislative branch in systems that use separati ...

, and that returning to a

parliamentary system A parliamentary system, or parliamentarian democracy, is a system of democratic governance of a state (or subordinate entity) where the executive derives its democratic legitimacy from its ability to command the support ("confidence") of the ...

would be harmful. They will also take a strong

anti-Zionist Anti-Zionism is opposition to Zionism. Although anti-Zionism is a heterogeneous phenomenon, all its proponents agree that the creation of the modern State of Israel, and the movement to create a sovereign Jewish state in the region of Palestine ...

position like their predecessor. The party is against LGBT rights, and has declared that LGBT people are "a perversion banned in every religion". The party's main aim is lifting a law that protects women and children against

domestic violence Domestic violence (also known as domestic abuse or family violence) is violence or other abuse that occurs in a domestic setting, such as in a marriage or cohabitation. ''Domestic violence'' is often used as a synonym for ''intimate partner ...

Election results

Parliamentary elections

References

External links

New Welfare Party
official website 2018 establishments in Turkey Political parties established in 2018 Political parties in Turkey Far-right political parties in Turkey Eurosceptic parties in Turkey Islamic political parties in Turkey Anti-Zionist political parties {{Turkey-party-stub Organizations that oppose LGBT rights Anti-Americanism Right-wing populism in Turkey