The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party), in power since 2002, is looking to reinvigorate its political vision through a sweeping consultation process that brings together Cabinet members, party officials and grassroots voices in a workshop this weekend, according to the party’s secretary-general, Eyyüp Kadir Inan, on Tuesday.
The event, themed “Leadership that Exceeds Borders with the Power of the Nation,” aims to cement the party’s strategic road map leading into 2025 and 2025 with a renewed emphasis on structural reform, social cohesion and global diplomacy, Inan told Anadolu Agency (AA).
“To best examine the issues of Türkiye, our youth, women, tradespeople and every constituency, the AK Party will address these under various titles, from security to society, economy to development,” Inan said.
The party is gearing up to assemble all cadres at the workshop in Ankara from July 11-13, which will contribute to achieving results that will strengthen both our party policies and government practices,” Inan noted.
“We are living in a period when the world seeks the consultation of Türkiye, our state and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as the focal point for solutions to all the gangrenous problems it is in,” Inan said.
As its 24th anniversary on Aug. 14 nears, Inan said the AK Party is hoping the workshop will further galvanize its policy-making processes, reinforce its reform agenda, and fortify the bridge between leadership and the people.
Though the political landscape in the year it was founded propelled the AK Party to the spotlight, landmark steps by successive AK Party governments helped it stay in power for more than two decades. Those include breaking the taboo on several issues, such as the Kurdish question and a headscarf ban.
Along the way, it faced lawsuits for its closure and several coup attempts.
Erdoğan himself was barred from politics after he was imprisoned for 10 months for reciting a poem deemed offensive to the country’s ruling elite, which toppled a coalition government of Erdoğan’s political mentor, Necmettin Erbaka,n in 1997. This ban only ended in 2003, and he became the second prime minister of the AK Party after a brief tenure by Abdullah Gül.
Since then, he has served either as prime minister or president and is credited with expanding his party’s support to the wider public through a string of reforms in public services.
The party was first challenged to remain in power in the 2004 local elections. However, the sweeping social change that brought the AK Party to power as the voice of the previously unheard masses also brought its first municipal election victory. With a vote rate of 41.7%, the AK Party won seats in 1,765 municipalities.
In the next general election, it further cemented its success by winning more than 46% of the vote. The successive elections were almost a carbon copy of each other for the AK Party in terms of the high rate of votes, despite fluctuations at times.
It was not an easy road to power for the party, though, amid strict opposition from remnants of military and judiciary tutelage. In 2008, the party faced closure, while Erdoğan and other senior figures faced political bans when the Constitutional Court approved pleas for the closure of the party. It ultimately staved off the closure at the end of the legal process.
Undaunted, the party did not step back from its goal of the prevalence of democracy. In 2014, Erdoğan had the honor of being the first publicly elected president of Türkiye after legal amendments advocated by the party were approved.
In 2016, Erdoğan handed the seat of the AK Party leadership to Binali Yıldırım, who went on to be elected as prime minister.
In 2017, the party brought another major change to Türkiye. A referendum in favor of an executive presidential system was overwhelmingly approved by the public, also eliminating the clause that the president should resign from his party. In 2018, Erdoğan was elected as the first president of the new system.
Accustomed to the victories, Erdoğan faced a tough test in the 2023 elections. For the first time and in the face of an unprecedented alliance of the opposition, Erdoğan was forced to participate in a runoff election on May 28. Still, the public support apparently did not fade for the president, who won the runoff with more than 52% of the vote.
