Today we went to the regional headquarter of Turkey's ruling party: Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi(AKP) to hear about their Minority Rights Reforms. Afterwards we went to the less fancy headquarters of DTP - the biggest Kurdish party.
The AKP, under leadership of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, is a Conservative, Democratic and Islamist Party. They favour democratic reform and stronger minority rights and Turkish EU membership. The AKP has improved the Turkish economy a lot through successful reforms.
Their hold on the power in Turkey is not threatened by any other political party, as they are by far the best and strongest. However internally there are divisions in the Party between Islamists and Secularists which reflects the general situation in Turkey.
2 years ago the AKP were threatened by a military coup from the army, but as they stayed in power - their confidence is at an all-time high. The Constitutional Court of Turkey and the Turkish army see themselves as defenders of Ataturks' vision of secularism in Turkey - and often critisıse the AKP for being too Islamist.
I agree with a journalist we met previously when she says: AKP is the best party in Turkey, but they are not to be trusted. Though they favour Minority Rights, EU Membership, and have sound economic policies, there is a threat that they might turn too Islamist if they hold the power in Turkey for too long. Also they have shady business relations with the big Turkish Conglomerates.
By Jeppe Kirk Bonde
No comments:
Post a Comment