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 in June 2001, for violating the secularist articles of the Constitution. After the party's ban, the party MPs founded two parties: reformist Justice and Development Party (AKP) and traditionalist Felicity Party (SP).
Founders of Virtue Party were also active members of National Order Party (MNP), National Salvation Party (MSP) and Welfare Party (RP). The Virtue Party was the first party in this tradition to have genuine intra-party democracy.
Merve Kavakçı, the female elected MP who was banned from swearing her oath in Turkish Grand National Assembly because she wore headscarf, was a Virtue Party member.
Famous quotes containing the words virtue and/or party:
“Your virtue raises your glory above your crime.”
—Pierre Corneille (1606–1684)
“Neither party expected for the war, the magnitude, or the duration, which it has already attained. Neither anticipated that the cause of the conflict might cease with, or even before, the conflict itself should cease.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)