Founder İsmail Alptekin Dissolved 2001 Headquarters Ankara | Founded 1998 Preceded by Welfare Party | |
Leader Recai Kutan (1998-2001) | ||
Virtue Party (Turkish: Fazilet Partisi, FP) was an Islamist political party established in December 1998 in Turkey. It was found unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court and then banned on 22 June 2001 for violating the secularist articles of the Constitution. After the party's ban, the party MPs founded two sections of parties: reformist Justice and Development Party (AKP) and traditionalist Felicity Party (SP).
Founders of the Virtue Party were also active members of the National Order Party (MNP), National Salvation Party (MSP) and Welfare Party (RP).
Merve Kavakçı, the female elected as the MP who was banned from swearing her oath in Turkish Grand National Assembly because she wore a headscarf, was a Virtue Party member.
Former party chairman Mehmet Recai Kutan submitted a case on behalf of the party to the European Court of Human Rights, alleging infringement of Articles 10 (freedom of expression) and 11 (freedom of association) among others. In December 2005, Kutan told the court that he intended to withdraw the application, possibly influenced by the unfavourable result in Leyla Şahin v. Turkey (2004), and the court struck out the case.