[Politics] Politics Today: Erdogan's secret... How did the Justice and Development Party mobilize millions behind it?

[SnO]

An article published by the American "Politics Today" website tried to answer the question: How did the Justice and Development Party manage to mobilize millions behind it after two decades? Saying that the secret lies in the political capital the party has achieved throughout its 21-year rule, and the policies it has pursued.

The author of the article, director of the Turkish SETA Foundation for Political, Economic and Social Research, Nabi Mish, said that foreign observers believe that the current Turkish elections are the most important in the world this year, and these elections have become more interesting given the fact that the Justice and Development Party won even Now on about 15 different ballots over the past two decades.

 

 

 

 

 

The writer explained that for a political party that has been in power for a long time, preparing for the elections is not limited to making promises, presenting an electoral statement, organizing crowded rallies, and publishing advertisements in the media. Despite the importance of these efforts, they will not be sufficient to motivate and mobilize voters and win the elections. Rather, the main factor is the voter monitoring of the practices of political parties and leaders between the past and the present.

The writer pointed out that in 2002 voters were not confident in politics and politicians, as electoral promises were marketed in the 1990s through "bubble politics", and the country's long-accumulated problems exacerbated, and governments could no longer solve existing problems nor provide a future vision.

Restore trust between politics and society
In this desperate climate, the AKP’s first election manifesto, “Everything for Turkey,” focused on urgent action plans aimed at restoring society’s confidence in politics, committed to expanding the political scene through democratic moves, and promised to remove obstacles to establishing liberties.

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And the writer continued: Before the 2007 elections, when the ruling Justice and Development Party at the time was subjected to enormous pressure from the centers of the army, the media, and the “Kemalist elite”, it prepared an electoral statement in which it pledged first to remove this tutelage, and secondly to continue the structural transformations that it initiated, such as expanding the space for democratic politics and carrying out Reforms will continue until a new constitution is drafted. For this reason, the title of the electoral manifesto for that year was "With security and stability, there is no rest for the defaulters."

Expanding freedoms
He said that the post-2011 period represented another critical turning point for supporters of the old regime, who showed strong and effective resistance. Through political adventurism, the AKP government has attempted to expand freedoms, increase the well-being of citizens through promoting economic development, and solve long-ignored problems such as the peace process, opening up to Alevis, granting rights to non-Muslim minorities, and others. The government has adopted a rhetoric urging stronger democratic values and more human rights, and has campaigned for this since 2002.

The writer added that: This struggle has faced a series of strong, undemocratic responses since 2013, starting with the violent Gezi Park protests, continuing with the truck plot targeting the Turkish National Intelligence Service, and the attempted judicial coup by members of the Fethullah Gulen Organization, who infiltrated the The judiciary between December 17 and 25, 2013, the events of the sixth and seventh of October 2014, and finally the failed military coup attempt on July 15, 2016 by the Gulen Organization.

Centenary of the Republic of Türkiye
On the way to the 2023 elections, the AKP government has countered the destabilizing efforts that have occurred since 2013, fulfilled its electoral promises by focusing on development, services, and investment-oriented policies, and succeeded in enacting reforms that helped restructure state mechanisms.

As a result, the writer says, the current elections, which mark the centenary of the Republic of Turkey, represent a new decisive turning point for the Justice and Development Party. It is a new era in which the government of this party can complete the projects it has resumed and implement new reforms. All electoral statements of the party have been revised according to Türkiye's changing conditions, demands and social and political expectations. The data includes large projects that attract the attention of voters, and they are presented with extensive lists of completed and ongoing projects.

The writer explained that there are significant differences between the statement prepared by the Justice and Development Party for the current elections and the statements of other political parties. The Justice and Development Party reminds voters of all that it has achieved so far under the slogan "What we have done is a guarantee of what we will do," and the opposition parties are promoting populist policies of a "bubble" nature.

 

 

https://www.aljazeera.net/politics/2023/5/10/بوليتيكس-توداي-سرّ-أردوغان-كيف-استطاع