Kamil Pasha

Excerpt from article by Saban Kardas:

What is the identity of the AK Party, then? The party promoted “conservative democracy” as a catchphrase during its first years in government… Seeing the AK Party as a center-right actor captures very well the populist and catch-all nature of the party in terms of its access to diverse electoral groups.…The AK Party’s management of the governance problem since the beginning of the judicial interference in politics, however, increasingly shattered intellectual support for the party….

…The AK Party is riding an increasingly bumpy road, and is alienated in its struggle for survival every passing day. The intensity of the current political crisis and the deliberate attempts of the neo-nationalist forces to make the country ungovernable are to a large extent forcing the party to commit these mistakes. However, this situation also is a result of acts of omission as well as commission on the AK Party’s part, which undermine the effectiveness of its survival strategy. The alienation is an act of commission to the extent that the AK Party overreacted to any criticism of its policies and did not tolerate dissent. It also is an act of omission to the extent that it has failed to address the imbalance between its electoral support base and the identity of the AK Party’s leadership and party organization. It could not make inroads into wider sectors of society and open its leadership and core cadres to political actors from outside its own closed circle. Nor could it develop an effective public relations mechanism to communicate its position on controversial issues to society….

Irrespective of the decision of the Constitutional Court, the AK Party will remain the main force capable of inducing a transformation of the Turkish domestic scene. In a dinner with journalists, Prime Minister Erdo?an underlined the party’s determination to maintain the AK Party’s mission in Turkish political life, even if the party is closed down. Yet, the mission and identity of the AK Party are becoming increasingly blurred. As it fights to survive the current crisis, the AK Party will also have to take stock of its past mistakes and engage in soul searching. There is no reason to reduce the center-right position either to “wild capitalism” or to chauvinistic and authoritarianism conservatism. It also has a vibrant reformist and liberal stream, which the AK Party could draw on. Only then it will come out of this crisis by crystallizing its identity and consolidating its place in Turkish politics.

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Tags: AKP closure case, Nationalism, Politics //