The Ideological Framing of the National Outlook Parties in Turkey

This paper unpacks the ideological framing of the National Outlook (NO) parties in Turkey, focusing on the National Order Party and the National Salvation Party during the 1970s, and the Welfare Party between the years 1983 and 1991. Rejecting violence for the purpose of bringing about a regime in line with Islamic principles, the NO parties formulated a synthesis of conservative-rightist and tawḥīdi Islamist thought. The first part of this paper examines the overlap between the political discourse of the NO parties and the ideological pillars of conservative-rightist thought. The second part examines the internalization of the tawḥīdi framing and its utilization within the discourse of the NO parties. The paper argues that an in-depth analysis of these two elements is integral to understanding the NO parties’ underlying political philosophies.