On the Islamism Identity of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (JDP): A Systematic Review

This paper aims to study the Islamism identity of Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (JDP). To date, the question regarding the JDP’s identity has been widely debated. The JDP has frequently been labelled as an Islamist party due to its historical background, while other perspectives perceive the JDP as a non-Islamist party. Contradiction among scholars regarding the identity of the party has resulted in several debates in the existing literature. Therefore, this study attempts to review previous studies related to the discussion on the JDP’s identity. Methodologically, Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) was adopted to review related studies by utilizing two journal databases, namely the Web of Science and Scopus, with support by other databases. The searching process retrieved 24 sources that can be analyzed systematically. As a result of the thematic analysis, three main themes have been developed that represent arguments on the JDP’s identity, namely the JDP as an Islamist party, the JDP as a non-Islamist party, and the JDP as a party that undergoes a shift in identity. Finally, the present study offers some recommendations that can be considered for future studies.