Erdoğan and AKP had begun to change in 2005

Through expressions of astonishment, the European Union officials and a certain foreign press are suddenly discovering the anti-reformist AKP. However, the AKP ceased to be an unusual reformist party four years ago. And I have kept stressing this for years. Let us recall.

More European Union, contrary to the assumptions, will be useful for the AKP government. Is it possible to deny how functional the European Union process is in the success of the government? Both inside and outside, the AKP is reinforcing legitimacy through the European Union membership bid.

And the legitimacy will be sustained as long as the party supports this bid. The AKP will lose control and harm itself if gives credit to anti-European Union nationalist groups. Today, a determination inside the AKP to bring the European Union bid back to the agenda is being looked for. Dec. 30, 2005

In fact, the AKP is the tenant of nationalist ideology not the owner. It is vital both for the party and for the country, if the AKP takes political steps by taking this fact into consideration. Sept. 26, 2006

A certain western press did not mention about the AKP’s responsibility to prepare the condition we are in today. Despite all warnings, this press did not write that the AKP has kept pace with the system established in the aftermath of the 1980 coup d’etat pretty well and that benefited from the advantages of this anti-democratic system. Western journalists did not point out the injustice in political representation and imbalances created by the 1980 system as one of the main reasons behind today’s questioning of legitimacy in the country.

They never noted that the AKP did not produced any constructive policy in solving the Kurdish issue and to the contrary it has subcontracted the solution of the Kurdish question to the military.

They did not consider occurrence of serious downfalls in fundamental freedoms and the AKP’s lack of appetite for the prevention of attacks on religions and sects other than Sunni Islam. They did not noted either the fact that when the European Union reform process came to an end, Turkey’s chronic discrepancies surfaced again. May 15, 2007

As I always pointed out, the AKP needs none-AKP experience and knowledge. In order for the AKP to settle in the center right and remain there, it should avoid nationalist, protectionist, ill-tempered anti-western politics, should know that it cannot be nurtured by the same source with the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, and the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP.

The AKP should also focus on more democracy. The easiest way for this, is again the European Union membership process. July 31, 2007

The civilian constitution is a vital test for the AKP government and Turkey. If today’s course of events is fixed as is, democrat and liberal wing, which is backing the government party for more democracy, would hardly be able to continue to support it. Sept. 25, 2007

The AKP leaves the job half-done, does not push it for more change, determines its own turf and then chooses to co-exist.

That was the case after the issuance of the Apr. 27 electronic memorandum by the military. This tactic is not fruitful not for more democracy, let alone discussions over laicism that the AKP engaged in with the military and Kemalists because the impact of the military over political mechanisms is not a-la-carte, just like the presence of governments in politics and their control over the civil servants cannot be a-la-carte. Nov. 20, 2007

Huge problems due to the polarization can only be overcome through the European Union bid, as an upper scale through which all the issues are taken up together, as it was the case in the period between 2002 to 2004, not through the "AKP’s Turkey" or any other party’s Turkey as it is pretended. Feb. 13, 2008
The AKP was the actor of the change when the party took over Turkey’s reins in 2002 and prepared grounds for dynamics of change as it took steps to pave the way for Turkey. The AKP was not the change itself. Why do people today insist on emphasizing the importance of a civilian constitution?

Why are they adamant to go back to the European Union process despite the present negative trend? Because this is the only way to institutionalize checks and balances and make these institutions stable. The institutional guarantee cannot be given by the personal assurance of a Sultan like in the Ottoman era nor of a single political party. March 4, 2008

Those who, during the last four years, turned a blind eye to AKP’s under-performance and sheer unwillingness to continue reforms certainly play a share in the dire state the party is in today.

They should not grumble now. But the fiasco of AKP experience is not a good omen, neither for Turkey nor for Muslims nor for the world.