Prava prekretnica za vjerski konzervativni pokret bio je "meki vojni udar" 1997. godine, kojim je s vlasti zbačena islamistička Partija dobrobiti (Refah), nakon čega je stranku 1998. i zatvorio ustavni sud povezan s kemalistima zbog kršenja principa sekularizma.
The real turning point for the religious conservative movement was the military's "soft-coup" in 1997, pushing the Islamist Welfare Party (Refah) out of power, followed by the party's closure in 1998 by the Kemalist allied constitutional court for violating the principles of secularism.