President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) is facing its first major loss in member registration numbers in 17 years.
In 2013, as news about fake memberships in the ruling party made headlines, a senior AKP official told me that this was “like when you face a bear; if you can make yourself appear bigger than you are, the animal will run away.” Indeed, for anyone in opposition, it was disheartening to hear the question, “How can you win against a party with 10 million registered members?”