Welfare Party Refah Partisi
Founders	Ali Türkmen Ahmet Tekdal Necmettin Erbakan
Founded	19 July 1983
Banned	16 January 1998
Preceded by	National Salvation Party
Succeeded by	Virtue Party
Headquarters	Ankara,Turkey
Ideology	Millî Görüş Social conservatism Islamism Pan-Islamism
Political position	Far-right
Religion	Sunni Islam
Colors	Red (official)   Hot pink (customary)
Slogan	Justice is our goal
Party flag
Politics of Turkey Political parties Elections

TheWelfare Party (Turkish:Refah Partisi, RP) was anIslamist political party inTurkey. It was founded by Ali Türkmen, Ahmet Tekdal, andNecmettin Erbakan inAnkara in 1983 as heir to two earlier parties,National Order Party (MNP) andNational Salvation Party (MSP), which were banned from politics. The RP participated in mayoral elections at that time and won in three citiesKonya,Şanlıurfa, andVan. Their vote percentage was approximately 5%.

The Welfare Party participated in the1991 elections in a triple alliance with theNationalist Movement Party (MHP) and theReformist Democracy Party (IDP). They gained 16.9% of the vote. They won 62 deputies to parliament, but 19 deputies of MHP (with founding Democratic Movement Party on 25 December 1991 and joining the MÇP on 29 December 1991) and 3 of IDP left the Welfare Party after the election. Their popular vote increased over the years until they became the largest party underPrime Minister Necmettin Erbakan in 1996. The coalition government of Erbakan wasforced out of power by the Turkish military in 1997, due to being suspected of having anIslamist agenda.^[1]

In 1998, the Welfare Party wasbanned from politics by theConstitutional Court of Turkey for violating theseparation of religion and state.^[2] The ban was upheld by theEuropean Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) on 13 February 2003. The ECtHR's decision was criticized byHuman Rights Watch for lack of consistency, as the ECtHR had refuseddisbanding of other parties on several occasions, but the ECtHR defended its decision.^[3][4]

Turkey's incumbentpresident,Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is a former member of the party.^[5] After being banned from politics for a period, he left this Islamist group and founded theJustice and Development Party (AKP).Abdullah Gül, the formerPresident of Turkey, was the deputy leader of the Welfare Party until its dissolution.

The Welfare Party came into the political sphere at a time when the impoverished public was discontented with the current government.^[6] Relying on Islamic rhetoric, they encouraged certain aspects ofsharia law. Turkey, as a secular state, took issue with their religious narrative. Article 2.1 of theTurkish Constitution states that Turkey is a “democratic, secular, and social state.”^[7] Refah’s theocentric policy and speeches violated this commitment to secularism.  On January 16, 1998, theConstitutional Court dissolved the Welfare Party because it had become a “center of activities against the principle of secularism.”^[8]

The Welfare Party then appealed to theEuropean Court of Human Rights (ECtHR), stating that the Turkish Supreme Court violated Article 11 of theEuropean Convention of Human Rights that protects assembly and association. Refah also complained that its rights protected in Articles 9, 10, 14, 17, and 18 of the Convention and Articles 1 and 3 of Protocol No. 1 had been violated.

Paragraph 2 of Article 11 states that if free speech rights are limited, and both parties agreed that they had been, it must be “necessary in a democratic society.”^[8] The court found that Article 9, which protects freedom of religion, did not protect the Welfare Party from the fact that their policies went directly against the Turkish Constitution. They explained that a political party may campaign for a change in the constitution under two regulations: the campaigning must be done in a democratic and legal manner, and that the change itself must protect fundamental democratic principles.^[8] The court concluded that the Welfare Party’s political agenda did not uphold these two standards. The Welfare Party’s religious roots were considered to be detrimental to the protection of democracy.^[8]

The Welfare Party’s ban was the first in a number of party bans in Turkey due to religious circumstances. Turkey’s commitment to progress, unity, and democracy in its early years meant that they often dismantled organizations that threatened any of these three pillars.^[9] Therefore, any separatist or generally revolutionary party threatened Turkish politics and was banned in the Constitutional Court and was deemed anillegal party.^[10] Turkey’s current Prime MinisterRecep Tayyip Erdoğan was originally a member of the Welfare Party, and he used his status as a Islamist leader to garner support for his current party, theJustice and Development Party.^[10] The string of party bans made way for the Justice and Development Party to gain religious and political control.^[10]

After the closure of the party, the Treasury demanded the return of grants worth around onetrillion lira, i.e. one million₺ in today's currency (around€ 99,796). Party officials stated that the funds were spent on party activities. However, an investigation revealed that the official documents were forged.^[11][12][13]

In the beginning of 1999, Necmettin Erbakan and 78 party officials stood trial in Ankara forembezzlement charges. The case became known as the "Lost Trillion Case" or the "Missing Trillion Case" (Turkish:Kayıp Trilyon Davası).^[11][12][13] In March 2002, the court sentenced Erbakan to two years and four months in prison. 68 party officials received sentences of up to one year and two months in prison. The sentences were approved by theSupreme Court of Appeals.^[14][15] TheEuropean Court of Human Rights upheld the ban as well.^[16]

In the 1990s, both Algeria and Turkey had similar tensions between Islamists and a secular military. The Algerian military's intervention led to the repression ofFIS and the subsequentAlgerian Civil War in 1992, and the Turkish military forced the resignation of theErbakan government and banned the Welfare Party.^[17] Referring to the Civil War,Necmettin Erbakan said "Turkey will not turn into Algeria" in 1992^[18] and in 1997.^[19] However, on 10 May 1997, Welfare PartyŞanlıurfa MP İbrahim Halil Çelik threatened that "If you try to close theİmam Hatip schools under the RP government, blood will be spilled. It would be worse than Algeria."^[20] Erbakan and his associates developed ties with FIS, and when Erbakan visited theAmerican Muslim Council in October 1994, he engaged with FIS representatives.^[21]

• List of Islamic political parties
• New Welfare Party

• ECHR Third Section judgment (2001)
• ECHR Grand Chamber judgment (2003)

• Welfare Party
• Defunct political parties in Turkey
• Banned Islamist parties in Turkey
• Defunct far-right parties in Turkey
• Political parties established in 1983
• Defunct Islamic organizations
• Article 11 of the European Convention on Human Rights
• European Court of Human Rights cases involving Turkey
• 1983 establishments in Turkey
• Political parties disestablished in 1998
• 1998 disestablishments in Turkey
• Recep Tayyip Erdoğan
• Islamic organizations established in 1983
• Islamic political parties in Turkey
• Conservatism in Turkey

• CS1 Turkish-language sources (tr)
• Articles with short description
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• Use dmy dates from October 2020
• Articles containing Turkish-language text