The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) started training party organizations to rejuvenate the 18-year-old party, informing the members about core principles and values.

Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), AK Party Deputy President Hamza Dağ said with the congress process that will begin in October, party organizations will be trained for nine months. "The training will be based on projects that the AK Party has accomplished in the last 18 years as well as its principles and values," he explained.

Dağ said the process started after the recent Central Executive Committee (MYK) discussed the need for such a process with party leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The party has until May 2021 for its seventh ordinary congress; however, the party will not wait until then and is expected to hold a congress in September 2020. The congress will not only elect the leader of the party but also members of the Central Decision and Executive Board, the highest decision-making actor in the party. From the rejuvenated Central Decision and Executive Board, Central Executive Committee members, who constitute the managerial staff of the party, will be elected. Pointing out that the AK Party Politics Academy [AKSEM] has trained more than 100,000 people so far both in and outside of the party, Dağ said during this organization training process, they'll train more than 10,000 members at once.

"We will make our organizations go through a rejuvenation and refreshment process. First, we will do our training and then we will crown it with our congress," he underlined.

Dağ indicated that the content of the training would be wide and inclusive. "We will provide training in social media, personal development, crisis resolution and meeting administration. The major part of our organization is already aware of these issues. However, we believe that doing collective, systematic training would be beneficial," Dağ said.

Referring to the past of the party full of election victories, Dağ said the party has a dynamic organizational structure."We have the enthusiasm to be the ruling party for many more years," he said, adding that this training process will also portray how the party will manage realizing its 2023 goals.

Founded on Aug. 14, 2001 under the leadership of Erdoğan, the AK Party has become the most successful political party in modern Turkey's democratic history with successive election victories and for leading reforms that improved the country's democracy and economic standards.

Transforming Turkish politics for the last 18 years, the AK Party has been preparing to lead new reforms to enable Turkey to reach its 2023 targets. Only one year after its foundation, the AK Party saw great success in its first general elections, garnering 34.3% of the vote in the Nov. 3, 2002 elections and earning 363 seats in Parliament. Since then, the AK Party has never lost an election. In the last 18 years under the AK Party administration, Turkey witnessed rapid development in many areas, including economy, democracy, individual liberties and rights, health and educational services in a stable political environment.