The RP participated in mayoral elections at that time and won in three cities Konya, Şanlıurfa, and Van.

The coalition government of Erbakan was forced out of power by the Turkish military in 1997, due to being suspected of having an Islamist agenda.

[1] In 1998, the Welfare Party was banned from politics by the Constitutional Court of Turkey for violating the separation of religion and state.

[5] After being banned from politics for a period, he left this Islamist group and founded the Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Paragraph 2 of Article 11 states that if free speech rights are limited, and both parties agreed that they had been, it must be “necessary in a democratic society.”[8] The court found that Article 9, which protects freedom of religion, did not protect the Welfare Party from the fact that their policies went directly against the Turkish Constitution.

Turkey’s commitment to progress, unity, and democracy in its early years meant that they often dismantled organizations that threatened any of these three pillars.

[10] After the closure of the party, the Treasury demanded the return of grants worth around one trillion lira, i.e. one million ₺ in today's currency (around € 99,796).

[11][12][13] In the beginning of 1999, Necmettin Erbakan and 78 party officials stood trial in Ankara for embezzlement charges.

[19] However, on 10 May 1997, Welfare Party Şanlıurfa MP İbrahim Halil Çelik threatened that "If you try to close the İmam Hatip schools under the RP government, blood will be spilled.