Politics of the Gecekondu in Turkey: The political choices of urban squatters in national elections

Abstract

This article demonstrates that the victory of the pro‐Islamist Welfare Party in Turkey's 1995 general elections resulted mainly from a significantly disproportionate increase in support from urban squatter neighborhoods. But the increase is not due solely to the growth of Islamic ideology, as is commonly believed. Rather, in a move consistent with their past voting behavior, urban squatters shifted their electoral support to the Islamists when the parties representing the “periphery,” which traditionally protected their interests, moved to the center, and left them searching for an alternative to address their material needs.