National Salvation Party

…a parliamentary candidate of the National Salvation Party (NSP; Millî Selâmet Partisi), the first Islamist party to make an impact. After Gül graduated (1971) with a degree in economics from Istanbul University, where he was active in the nationalist Turkish National Students’ Union, he spent two years conducting postgraduate studies…

…formed a coalition with the National Salvation Party (NSP), founded in 1972 as a successor to the banned NOP and led by Necmettin Erbakan. The electoral success of the NSP—which polled more than one-tenth of the vote—was striking. Although the constitution banned religious parties, the NSP was in all but…