Justice and Development Party (AKP)

The heads of Baptist churches from 120 countries gathered in the Aegean province of İzmir for a congress on “religious tourism” July 8.

Around 600 national and international guests attended the first session of “Religious Tourism Meeting of Civilizations” in Turkey, where the main topic of discussion centered on the importance of religious tourism.

The Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) has accused Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of pursuing a “dictatorship” and warned him about making the “wrong calculations.”

Presidential hopeful Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has belittled the portrayal of his main competitor Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu as an impartial statesman, saying the Turkish people will not be electing “an ornamental president” when they go to the ballot boxes next month.

Sometimes it is an enigma to me to realize how far this country has come, despite all its problems.

I can’t even imagine what Turkey would have looked like if we had endorsed efficiency, rather than shooting ourselves in the foot as a national sport.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a great critic of the political tradition represented by the Republican People Party (CHP). For him, that tradition represents one-party rule, and governance imposed from above. He hit out at the party again after he was nominated by the Justice and Development Party (AKP) to run for president.

Turkey now has 81 political parties following the foundation of the Center Party (MEP), as it finalized the legal process.

Abdürrahim Karslı, the leader, said during the party’s opening ceremony in Ankara’s Balgat July 7 the MEP would remain in consultation grounds, avoiding conflicts.

Contrary to what is generally believed Turkey does not have an administration problem. Totalitarian, often bordering dictatorship, most of the time officiously intervening in the private sphere, but there has always been a strong government in Ankara over the past decade or so. Yet, there is impotence.

After the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) nominated Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as its candidate for the presidential elections, he gave a speech and promised the beginning of “a new epoch” for Turkey.

President Abdullah Gül has wished success to Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu, the joint opposition presidential candidate of the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), for the upcoming presidential elections, during a meeting between the two.

President Abdullah Gül would not reject the position of prime minister if the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) appoints him under the possible presidency of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan after the Aug. 10 elections, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç has said.