Turkey's President Erdoğan to reshuffle ruling AKP's A team

Turan Yılmaz - ANKARA

President and ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is planning to make some changes to the party management in the upcoming AKP convention, as parliamentary speaker Binali Yıldırım and deputy speaker Mustafa Şentop will not be on the AKP A team due to their posts.

The ruling party prepares for the grand congress to be held on Aug. 18, while the party management is planning to make changes in Central Executive Board (MYK) and Central Decision and Management Board (MKYK), party sources revealed to daily Hürriyet on Aug. 5.

Former Prime Minister and current Parliamentary Speaker Yıldırım and deputy speaker Mustafa Şentop will not be on the MKYK due to his post.

According to the party sources, Erdoğan has not assigned AKP members who have served in parliamentary commissions to the top party executive boards before and due to this attitude, Constitutional Committee head Bekir Bozdağ, Equality in Opportunity Between Genders Committee head Julide Sarıearoğlu, and National Education Committee head Numan Kurtulmuş may not be on the list for the top bodies.

However, it was stated Erdoğan may make an exception for Bozdağ and Kurtulmuş if he is considering them in the execution.

Treasury and Finance Minister Berat Albayrak, Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gül and Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu are voiced as the names who will continue to take place in the party’s top board.

In addition, it was stated Nurettin Canikli, former defense minister who has not taken place in neither cabinet nor parliament after the election, may be on the list for the MKYK.

It was also stated former Family and Social Policies Minister Fatma Betül Sayan Kaya may be on the list along with 18-year old lawmaker candidate Elif Nur Bayram, who was presented as a candidate from Kocaeli. However, she did not make it into parliament.