During Sept. 12-13, Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) held its annual convention at a gigantic hall in Ankara. It was the first convention at which the party’s “eternal leader,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was not physically present, because he is, technically speaking, a “nonpartisan president,” according to the Turkish Constitution. Yet in fact, the spirit of Erdogan was everywhere, putting its mark on the party more decidedly than ever. As a result, some key AKP veterans who dared at times to disagree with Erdogan and are viewed by some outside the party as “moderates” were excluded from the party’s decision-making central committee. Meanwhile, hawks and loyalists received promotions.
The convention is something that the AKP, like other Turkish parties, holds every year, bringing together more than 1,000 delegates from across Turkey to elect a party chair and central committee. In the AKP, the latter consists of 50 members who meet routinely to determine policy. In reality, however, the system works in a more top-down than bottom-up manner. In other words, the delegates and the central committee do little more than endorse the decisions of the party leader.
