The latest official figures show that the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) retains the highest number of members since it came to power over two decades ago. The party is part of a growing list of 168 parties officially registered by the General Prosecution Office of the Supreme Court of Appeal. The office oversees the approval and closure of parties and recently updated its list of active parties in Turkish politics.
The AK Party has more than 11.1 million members, ahead of its main rival, the opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP), which has more than 1.5 million members.
The ruling party will mark its 24th year in the political scene this year. Though the political landscape in the year it was founded propelled the AK Party to the spotlight, landmark steps by successive AK Party governments helped it to stay in power for more than two decades. Those include breaking the taboo on several issues, such as the so-called Kurdish question and a headscarf ban. Along the way, it faced lawsuits for its closure and several coup attempts. Its chair and current President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan himself was barred from politics after he was imprisoned for 10 months for reciting a poem deemed offensive for the country’s ruling elite, which toppled a coalition government of Erdoğan’s political mentor Necmettin Erbakan in 1997. This ban only ended in 2003, and he became the second prime minister of the AK Party after a brief tenure by Abdullah Gül. Since then, he has served either as prime minister or president and is credited with expanding his party’s support to the wider public through a string of reforms in public services. The party was first challenged to remain in power in the 2004 local elections. However, the sweeping social change that brought the AK Party to power as the voice of the previously unheard masses also brought its first municipal election victory. With a vote rate of 41.7%, the AK Party won seats in 1,765 municipalities. In the next general election, it further cemented its success by winning more than 46% of the vote. The successive elections were almost a carbon copy of each other for the AK Party in terms of the high rate of vote, despite fluctuations at times.
Though it lacks the high number of members of the AK Party, the CHP is still its strongest rival. The oldest party in the history of the Republic of Türkiye was founded by the first president and the republic’s founder, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk himself. For some time, it enjoyed popularity but failed to secure any significant electoral victory since the first genuinely multiparty elections in 1950. It remained strictly in opposition since the 1990s. Its only major gain was last year’s municipal elections, in which it won several AK Party strongholds.
The Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), part of the People’s Alliance with the AK Party, follows the CHP with 495,477 members. The MHP has long been part of the opposition and joined the alliance in 2016. One of the oldest nationalist parties in the country, it spawned two more parties founded by its former members, including the Good Party (IP), which boasts 412,744 members and the Victory Party (ZP), which has 71,732 members, according to the official figures.
The New Welfare Party (YRP), which was founded in 2018, appears to be gaining a major following with 622,847 members. The YRP is chaired by Fatih Erbakan, son of the late Necmettin Erbakan. It promotes itself as a successor to the late Erbakan’s now-defunct Welfare Party (RP). The Felicity Party (SP), which also claims to be following in the footsteps of the late Erbakan, has 232,928 voters. Both parties adhere to a conservative ideology, though the YRP is more distant from any alliance with the CHP, whereas the SP agreed to join a six-party opposition bloc with the CHP during the 2023 general elections.
The Peoples’ Equality and Democracy Party (DEM), which is accused of links to the terrorist group PKK, has only 14,741 members despite the relatively high rate of votes it garnered in the past municipal election. DEM’s spiritual predecessor, the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), which faces a closure lawsuit over PKK links and ceased political activities, has 14,539 members.
The Democrat Party (DP), which was part of the six-party opposition bloc, has more members than the two political parties splintered off from the AK Party, at 326,054. The Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA) led by Ali Babacan, formerly of the AK Party, has 134,025 members while the Future Party (GP) of former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has only 64,389 members.
