Justice minister praises Turkey's one-party rule era

Consistency in political arguments has not been a virtue of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) politics. 

The party's officials and supporters have not found it difficult to change their views on various subject 180 degrees. U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen and his followers were once praised for their "contributions to humanity," but they are now public enemy number one. 

The pro-government media wrote stories "proving" Russian President Vladimir Putin was behind terror attacks in Turkey when Ankara-Moscow relations were sour, but now the same media use U.S. President Barack Obama for target practice.

Even Abdullah Öcalan, the leader of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) who is serving life sentence, was once praised by pro-AKP pundits as the "only name that can bring peace to Turkey." Now the very same names call for the arrest of not only 11 but all lawmakers of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP).

With the AKP pursuing a shift to a presidential system that will consolidate much of the state power in the president's hands, it looks like the party has also had a change of heart regarding the Republic of Turkey's one-party rule era.

The Republican People's Party (CHP) ruled the republic from its establishment in 1923 until losing the power to the Democrat Party (DP) in 1950 elections, five year after the latter's foundation. During the one-party era, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk was the president until his death in 1938, and he was succeeded by İsmet İnönü, both of whom were also the leaders of the CHP.

That era, especially İnönü's term, has been severely criticized by the AKP, and President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. 

"The one-party CHP was trying to detach this nation...