Ahmet Davutoglu

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan signed a membership form to rejoin the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on May 2, returning to the party three years after he was elected president.

It marked a first in Turkish politics as the head of state is able to formally retain links with a political party in line with recently approved constitutional changes. 

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) will hold a ceremony on May 2 to welcome the return of its founder, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, marking a first in Turkish politics as the head of state is able to formally retain links with a political party in line with recently approved constitutional changes. 

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.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will become a member of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on May 2, Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım has said.

"We will hold a group meeting at our party headquarters on May 2. The party membership of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will be reactivated at this meeting," the prime minister said in Antalya. 

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is planning to hold an extraordinary convention on May 21 to elect President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as its chairman in line with constitutional amendments that now permit the head of the nation to retain links with his political party.

TV journalist Hakan Çelik asked an interesting question to Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım on private broadcaster CNN Türk in an interview on the evening of April 1: How will former President Abdullah Gül and former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu vote in the referendum on April 16?

Turkish journalist Fehmi Koru has said Turkey's National Intelligence Agency (MİT) chief Hakan Fidan visited the U.S.-based Islamic preacher Fethullah Gülen in Pennsylvania twice. 

Koru, in his testimony as witness in the main case into the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ) held at the Ankara Fourth Heavy Penal Court, said a high number of politicians visited Gülen.

The rising tide of an aggressive blend of nationalism and Islamism might be prompting Ankara to pursue its own WMDs, and its preference appears to be long-range missiles. As Turkey feels more threatened by real or (mostly) imagined enemies, it increasingly views maximum possible military deterrence as essential to both survival (a defensive goal) and assertiveness (an offensive one).

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) brought together prominent party figures, past and present, in a bid to mobilize them ahead of the April 16 referendum on shifting Turkey to an executive presidential system, though former President Abdullah Gül and former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu were not present at the meeting. 

One of the co-chairs of the opposition Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), Selahattin Demirtaş, has said participating in trials through the voice and video informatics system (SEGBİS) is "torture," adding that it is also "an unlawful practice."