Turkey's AKP will reset to factory settings: Deputy PM

Deniz Zeyrek – ANKARA

DHA Photo

Deputy Prime Minister Numan Kurtulmuş has said the Justice and Development Party (AKP) will return to its “factory settings” at its party’s congress in mid-September, adding that this date would also mark the start of its campaign for the snap election set for Nov. 1. 

“I hope the congress will be an opportunity where the messages conveyed to us by the nation on June 7 will be understood. The AKP could return to its factory settings with a spirit of renewal, putting forward the will to finish economic and judicial reforms, forming a message with a wide array [of people] in the future and spreading it to a wide proportion of the nation,” Kurtulmuş told Hürriyet. 

Stating that the AKP congress on Sept. 12 will see the party “renew its Islamic ablutions,” he said this would be reflected in its attitude, basis and slogans. 

The deputy prime minister said the congress would also fire the starting gun for the AKP’s campaign before the snap elections set for Nov. 1. The election will come just five months after the last election in June, when no party could form a government on its own. 

Saying the AKP would “accept whatever result emerges” from the Nov. 1 election, Kurtulmuş added that it was “obvious that no formula could work without containing the AKP.” 

Meanwhile, commenting on MHP Ankara deputy Tuğrul Türkeş’s acceptance of a ministerial post in the interim government, Kurtulmuş welcomed the move as a “correct political step.” 

“Because we cannot refrain from the language of polarization in politics, parties unfortunately consider each other enemies. Even though views may be different, and even though politics is a field of struggle and competition, it is not a field of war. I believe Türkeş’s name will be a positive contribution from this perspective,” he said. 

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu sent letters of proposal to individual deputies of other political parties, asking them to take part in the pre-election interim government to be formed before the early election.

Offers from Davutoğlu to MHP İzmir deputy and former MHP deputy chairman Kenan Tanrıkulu, as well as MHP deputy and former Interior Minister Meral Akşener have both been rejected.

Türkeş is the son of former MHP leader Alparslan Türkeş, and Kurtulmuş described his decision to joint he interim government as his “personal decision.” 

The MHP party leadership swiftly ordered Türkeş to resign or face dismissal from the party after being sent to the party’s disciplinary board.  

Stating that he wished all parties had accepted Davutoğlu’s call to send deputies for an interim government, Kurtulmuş said that could have allowed Turkey to relax in the “extraordinary period” before what looks set to be another combative election.