Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a master of spinning the political agenda with unexpected remarks and moves. His visit to Washington last week was not limited to Syria, Iraq, energy and bilateral trade. It produced also strong clues about the roadmap of domestic politics for the next two to three years.

Even though attention is focused on the delicate Syrian crisis and the fragile Kurdish peace process, it is obvious that a new constitution, reforms, systematic far-reaching changes, a new presidential system model and the remolding of the powerful Justice and Development Party (AKP) are the essential issues.

The reason lies in the three elections — municipal, presidential and parliamentarian — squeezed into 2014-2015, which will shape Turkey’s course in the runup to its centennial in 2023.

On his way back from the US, Erdogan spilled the beans in an elaborate answer to questions about efforts to draft a new constitution: “I’m also losing hope. If the effort fails, we’ll activate plan C and submit our own draft. We have 326 lawmakers. You know, the vote will be secret. Some brave souls might back the draft despite the pressure of their own parties. If we muster the required majority, we could go to a referendum. There might be three elections in 2014.”