Transformation of Socio-Political Institutions in Turkey under the Influence of the Islamic Factor

The influence of the Islamic factor (the factor of political Islam) on the political processes taking place in Turkey is undoubtedly significant. Socio-political institutions such as the army and the courts act as an object that the Islamic factor influences and transforms in one way or another. The purpose of the study, therefore, is to analyze the content and direction of this influence. The methodological basis of the research is the neo-institutional approach and the case study method. The emphasis is placed on formal and informal ties, relations between institutions: The Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Turkish Armed Forces, AKP and the courts. With the collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of the Turkish Republic, the relationship between the political institutions of Turkish society and Islam has radically changed, and the role and influence of the Islamic factor on the public sphere has decreased. As a result of the establishment of a strict secularist Kemalist regime (XX century), the activities of Islamic organizations and movements were severely suppressed. Nevertheless, at the end of the XX - beginning of the XXI century, the factor of political Islam became dominant in Turkish politics and led to fundamental changes in the institutional design of political power in Turkey: the influence of the army and courts on the Turkish political system decreased significantly and these institutions ceased to play the role of "defenders" of the Turkish model of secularism.