Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 15
By Rufiz Hafizoglu – Trend:
Major changes are expected to take place among the ranks of Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Ufuk Coskun, editor-in-chief of country’s Bolgepostasi newspaper, columnist of the Milat Gazetesi newspaper, told Trend.
The editor-in-chief noted that after the election of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as chairman of AKP, he called on some party members that damage its reputation to leave the party.
“To our great regret, no one has voluntarily left the AKP party so far, probably it’s because they don’t think that Erdogan’s appeal concerns them directly,” said Coskun.
He noted that Erdogan openly urged the party members, who didn’t justify his hopes before the referendum on amending the country’s constitution, to leave the ranks of the party.
“Erdogan considers it unacceptable that some members of the AKP join the ranks of the party to seek their personal interests, instead of serving for fulfillment of people’s hopes,” Coskun added. “President Erdogan also believes that Turkey will not be able to resist internal and external threats without seriously amending the AKP.”
In addition to all the above mentioned, Erdogan’s statements regarding changes in the AKP party are related to presidential and parliamentary elections to be held in Turkey in 2019, the editor-in-chief said.
Coskun noted that the 2019 elections will be one of the most important in the history of Turkey and one can already feel today that the leader of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) Kemal Kilicdaroglu is doing everything to ensure that the movement of Fethullah Gulen remains strong.
“Everything is done in Turkey to strengthen the political bloc that opposes Erdogan, since namely, Erdogan’s weakening could lead to the weakening of Turkey,” the expert believes.
In his opinion, there is a lot of evidence linking a number of Turkish opposition parties with external forces aimed at overthrowing Erdogan.
“Of course, Erdogan is aware of everything that is taking place and he doesn’t want the AKP to lose its strength,” Coskun added. “Unfortunately, AKP has weakened so much that it is unable to withstand all the threats. To revive the AKP, one needs to conduct large-scale changes in the party.”
It should be noted that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his latest statement noted that AKP needs large-scale changes.
It should be recalled that, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was established on August 14, 2001.