Erdoğan back in AKP

Was he back? Did he ever go? Indeed the parliamentary group meeting of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on May 2 at the party headquarters will remove a source of deception and put an end to the era of the "impartial president" system after President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan formally becomes an AKP member.

Although the move is not one that can be neglected, it is still a deficient move. If it was possible to convene a party convention within a few days, Erdoğan would probably want to officially rejoin the AKP from the point he had to "formally" abandon it because of the old rules of the game. Now, the rules of the game are changed to his preference and super presidential aspirations, but time is needed to domesticate the entire state apparatus to operate according to the wishes, thoughts and designs of the supreme leader. He will probably have to wait either for an extraordinary convention of the AKP within the next months, if not weeks, or wait until next year when the scheduled convention of the party gets underway. In any case, since he is "formally" back as a member, he can start redesigning the AKP according to the new reality.

From May 2016 to May 2017 it was a hectic year for Turkey. Not only the architect of the failed foreign policy, but particularly the country's Syria policy, former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu was removed from office and the AKP leadership and replaced by Binali Yıldırım. The country suffered a coup attempt. What was it? Who staged it? Was it a failed one or just one triggered by a bigger transformation of the country from a pluralistic parliamentary democracy toward a one-man rule? Particularly after the failed coup attempt, since the declaration of the state of emergency on July 20, 2016, Turkey has indeed...