Necmettin Erbakan was a Turkish politician, engineer, and academic who was the Prime Minister of Turkey from 1996 to 1997. He was pressured by the military to step down as prime minister and was later banned from politics by the Constitutional Court of Turkey for allegedly violating the separation of religion and state as mandated by the constitution.

Millî Görüş or Erbakanism is a religious-political movement and the ideology of a series of Islamist parties inspired by Necmettin Erbakan. It argues that Turkey can develop with its own human and economic power by protecting its core [Islamic] values and combating European imperialism. Multiple political parties in Turkey adopted the ideology, such as New Welfare Party, Felicity Party, Virtue Party, Welfare Party, National Salvation Party and National Order Party. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, a lieutenant of Erbakan, founded the more moderate Justice and Development Party, which has governed Turkey since 2002.