AK Party's Identity

Leaders and their parties may not necessarily support each other; sometimes they compete with each other. One may become more popular while the other's popularity declines.
The ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) came to power only one year after it was established and it has been in office for 12 years. It is only 13 years old and as it grew older, it felt the ever-increasing weight and influence of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
Initially, there were four prominent figures in the party. Erdoğan was primus inter pares. Abdüllatif Şener left the part during the 2007 crisis. Abdullah Gül became ineffective after he was elected president. The party's wise guy, Bülent Arınç, was overshadowed by Erdoğan.
The AK Party as a brand started to decline particularly after the 2011 elections as Erdoğan came to dominate the political identity of the party. The party naturally relied on Erdoğan's personality during the presidential election. Today, as Erdoğan is leaving his office as the chairman of the AK Party, Erdoğanism is overwhelming the AK Party's identity.
In a political scene that lacks established democratic conventions, leaders tend to use all opportunities for popularity to boost their own image instead of their party's institutional identity. Although it had experienced staff and organizational power, the AK Party used all its institutional background to lend extra support and power to Erdoğan as a person. As broad masses tend to focus on leaders' gestures and mimicries instead of political parties' institutional mechanisms, it was not very hard to create a cult of Erdoğan.
Oligarchic tendencies that emerge in all apparently democratic mass organizations further increased Erdoğan's personal popularity. Erdoğanism as a political identity has left the adherence to the AK Party out in the cold. This is like the relationship between the militants with political affiliations and sympathizers. The real situation will grow into a big contradiction because Erdoğan will leave the party.
This contradiction will post the most fundamental problem both for the person who will become the party's chairman and prime minister after Erdoğan as well as for Erdoğan, who will be acting as president. It will further make an impact on the new era and balances of Turkish political life. Erdoğan's quest for power, which is unsatisfied with the symbolic powers and authorities of a president, is backed by popular support that relies on his personality. Erdoğan tries to expand these powers and authorities using this support.
This contradiction is like a loose cannon inside the AK Party. In the final analysis, the AK Party is the source of all the power and force. It is the AK Party that controls the legislature and the executive. Since Dec. 17, 2013, it also controls the judiciary. The opposition parties are left outside this power game. As the military, the media, big capitalists and civil society organizations do not have any visible effect on politics, competing actors are confined to the AK Party. It follows that Erdoğan's ambitions to expand the presidential powers and authorities will grow as an internal problem for the AK Party.
Naturally, the AK Party's identity will differentiate from Erdoğanism. The process will invariably be characterized as a contention between the AK Party-ists and Erdoğanists. Erdoğan may be willing to throw all this support behind the AK Party, but it is impossible for the party to conduct an election campaign for 2015 with songs mentioning the name of Erdoğan. The new government will assert its power against Erdoğan.
The main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) will hold a party congress. But the real power-opposition competition will be between the AK Party-ists and Erdoğanists. Erdoğan's influence will inevitably diminish and the party's identity will become dominant.

MÜMTAZER TÜRKÖNE (Cihan/Today's Zaman)