Head of Banned Islamist Party Forms New Group

A new Islamist party was proclaimed in Turkey from the ruins of a party banned last month as subversive and immediately appealed for support from the “victims” of the country’s economic crisis.

Recai Kutan, of the now-outlawed Virtue Party, declared the formation of a party called Saadet, a word with Arabic roots meaning happiness.

Saadet, representing the more conservative wing of Virtue, will compete with a “modernist” party to be formed soon for the allegiance of about 100 parliamentary deputies who became independents after the ban.