Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has not yet announced that he will run for president in the elections to be held Aug. 10. He may remain mute on the subject, but senior members of his Justice and Development Party (AKP) are spelling it out plainly. Mehmet Ali Sahin, a former justice minister currently a deputy head of the AKP, is one such person.

Addressing party supporters on May 30 in Cankiri province, Sahin announced that the AKP wanted to see Erdogan become president, saying, “They say, ‘Tayyip Erdogan should not be a candidate. He is behaving like a dictator.’ Forget it! Tayyip Erdogan will continue to serve this nation and he will do so as president.”

Sahin also underlined the party's intention to return to parliament even stronger after the 2015 general elections so that it can change the constitution and introduce a presidential system. “Thus, our Prime Minister Erdogan, as a member of the party, will serve our nation as president until 2023,” he added, not mincing his words.

A day after Sahin’s remarks, Bulent Arinc, a deputy head of the AKP and veteran member of the party, also dropped heavy hints of this intention, although he remained more circumspect. “So who is the AKP candidate?” Arinc asked tauntingly during an address to local party members in the city of Manisa on June 1.