Turkey’s AKP: Who jumped ship and why
The recent resignations from Turkey’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the explanations given to them by the departing members point to an increasingly isolated Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
Gone are the days of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s all-embracing “balcony speeches.”
While it would be premature to say his Justice and Development Party (AKP) is sinking (recent polls indicate that the party still has more than 40% electoral support), it has been in treacherous waters lately and there are indications of leaks left and right, from port to starboard.
The AKP members who jumped ship recently come from various backgrounds and their respective departures, if not overly harmful to the party, show at least one thing — that the coalition with which Erdogan governed at one point is no more.
That coalition peaked at the 2010 constitutional referendum when the government’s proposal received 58% support and Erdogan was keenly aware of the diverse makeup of the vote.
