The New Spirit of Islamism: Interactions between the AKP, Ennahda and the Muslim Brotherhood

Since the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Tunisian President Ben Ali, delegations from Turkey’s Justice and Development Party – the AKP, including parliamentarians and ministers, visited Cairo and Tunis. Similarly, representatives from the Muslim Brotherhood and Ennahda visited Istanbul and Ankara, engaging in activities and meetings with government officials. What were the goals of these meetings, kept from the public eye? What discussions took place among these Islamist actors after the Arab Uprisings?

These questions intrigued Dr Ezgi Başaran and became the driving force behind her recent book, The New Spirit of Islamism, which examines the relationships between the AKP and the Muslim Brotherhood, and the AKP and Ennahda from 2011 to 2013. The focus on Tunisian Ennahda, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, and the AKP was not to compare their strategies or practices but to unravel the details of their political confluence. This period also marked the first time the Muslim Brotherhood and Ennahda participated in free elections, established political parties, and assumed power; hence, a unique opportunity for analysis of the goals and aims of Islamist movements. Based on the findings regarding this political confluence, Dr Başaran aims to deliver insights into what she calls the “new spirit of Islamism.”

Ezgi Başaran is a journalist and political scientist from Istanbul, currently living in Oxford, UK. She began her career as a reporter, covering conflict zones and significant global events, and later became the youngest editor-in-chief of a major liberal left newspaper. She has written extensively on the Kurdish conflict, Turkish and Middle Eastern politics, human rights violations, and freedom of speech. Her investigative work has earned her several accolades, and her commentary has appeared in major international media. Her first English book, Frontline Turkey: The Crisis at the Heart of the Middle East (2017), explores Turkey’s Kurdish issue and its regional implications. Her second book, The New Spirit of Islamism, was published in June 2024 by I.B Tauris/Bloomsbury. Ezgi holds an MPhil and DPhil from the University of Oxford, St Antony’s College.