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:
“But tell me: how did gold get to be the highest value? Because it is uncommon and useless and gleaming and gentle in its brilliance; it always gives itself. Only as an image of the highest virtue did gold get to be the highest value. The giver’s glance gleams like gold. A golden brilliance concludes peace between the moon and the sun. Uncommon is the highest virtue and useless, it is gleaming and gentle in its brilliance: a gift- giving virtue is the highest virtue.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)
“At the moment when a man openly makes known his difference of opinion from a well-known party leader, the whole world thinks that he must be angry with the latter. Sometimes, however, he is just on the point of ceasing to be angry with him. He ventures to put himself on the same plane as his opponent, and is free from the tortures of suppressed envy.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)