Justice and Development Party (AK Party) spokesman Mahir Ünal said the party is going into its second phase after 15 years with new policies to fulfill the necessities of the society's needy. In an interview with Kriter magazine in its October issue, Ünal said that the AK Party's second breakthrough will start in 2019.
"The AK Party is not just a party, but a national movement. That is why it has held power for 15 years. At the end of these 15 years, the AK Party has finally ended its struggle for [political] system change. In 2019, the AK Party's second breakthrough starts. This means that we are going into a new phase in politics, system and other areas that are related to these," he said, adding that nothing will be same as before in the country.
"With the return of President [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan back to the party leadership, the party quickly regained its spirit, climate, enthusiasm and dynamism. We have new policies, from providing homecare services and salaries to the disabled and ill citizens to unemployment insurance to fulfill the needs of the needy," the party spokesman said.
President Erdoğan became the party's chairman again last May, after three years out of the position until laws were changed to allow his return.
Ünal also criticized the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) and its chairman, Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, claiming they fuel the anti-Turkey rhetoric.
"Since Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu became the chairman of the CHP, there has been an interesting change in the political culture of Turkey. Until Kılıçdaroğlu, Turkish politics had its own unique flow. Yet, now we see that there has been very critical changes in some crucial points, like Kılıçdaroğlu and his party's rhetoric and the way they do politics, their relationship with the state and their approach to the legitimacy of the state," Ünal claimed.
"If you follow his rhetoric, you can see that he is a leader that can declare the security forces, gendarmerie and even the chief of general staff illegitimate if necessary. You see a leader and CHP that produces rhetoric on legitimacy crises in every incident that it has with the state," he continued.
He also asserted that after Kılıçdaroğlu became the chairman, all the anti-Turkey rhetoric from around the world started to share the same "frequency."
"When you look at the carriers of anti-Turkey rhetoric, which is produced from a single source inside the country, you see Kılıçdaroğlu and the media that is surrounded around him," he claimed.
"The CHP does not talk to the inside of the country anymore. It talks to the outside world. Until the July 15 coup attempt, they talked to the inside," Ünal said, additionally claiming that with its rhetoric inside, the CHP supports the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ), which has been running an ongoing smear campaign against Turkey.