An overwhelming portion of Turkey’s independent observers have for some time agreed that, given the amalgamation taking place between the hard-liner elements of the old “shadow state” and the top circles of the AKP under control of the office of the presidency, a rift was sooner or later inevitable within the ruling party.
They agree that the AKP has become unified with the nature of the old, repressive state of decades ago, as it allowed its old-style bureaucratic core into its political body; by enhancing immense space to security forces to deal with, not only the Kurdish stalemate, but also any sort of dissent, on paper or on the streets.
The main issue is, as developments show, the severe verticalization of the party’s management, as well as the total abandonment of civilian politics.
So, it isn’t hard to guess that the party is approaching a watershed.
Will its remnant pro-civilian inner dynamics be able to refresh a momentum for a return to civilian politics, or, as we see it now, will it be taken further into a full marriage with the old state, under the assertive dynamics represented by Erdoğan himself?
As reported by Cumhuriyet in a news analysis, anonymous sources from the AKP are quoted as such:
”When the AKP was founded, this principle was elementary: Collective wisdom. But we know now that it is lost; and turned into a ‘single mind.’ Given the Kurdish process, fight against terror, and foreign policy etc, Turkey’s policies are not sustainable. Therefore one should read Arınç’s remarks as ‘Somebody should speak up now, and give due warnings.’”
Said Sefa, editor of the news site Haberdar and one of the keen observers of the party since its foundation (and whose family elders are among the party’s founders), commented on the “disgruntlement of the grey-haired” as such:
”Because (they) know Erdoğan will not return to the old rules of the game, they now try to position themselves. Hoping that a return to the old spirit may be possible, they plan to save their political reputations and get a place in the game. The current opposition is no cure to the deficiencies of politics, since it has no vision to ask grassroots to mandate them in power. They also know that the way out of the dead end of politics is if the AKP is liberated from the reins of Erdoğan…”
The latter, of course, knows that whatever comes out from the AKP in terms of dissent will be focused and limited to strip him, as much as possible, from exercising his iron fist over the party.
The follow-up is uncertain, except for one details: The outcome of any rift within the AKP will define the destiny of Turkey, since Erdoğan is currently facing no other challengers.
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