"The AK Party that transformed the country cannot be exempt from transformation"

In my view, all the effects of the 31 March-23 June elections felt and experienced so far show how healthily the democratic system established in Türkiye works for everyone. I am not looking at the matter only from the AK Parti's perspective, but even looking only from the AK Parti's perspective, I had said before that it is a picture in which it has gained a great deal, in its capacity as the ruling party that still bears the responsibility of governing Türkiye.

Even though it lost two big cities such as Istanbul and Ankara, it has gained the strong advantage of the image of a Türkiye in which democracy, law, rules and statute function. It is evident that the value of this image is definitely far greater than the returns of an election won otherwise.

Far more important than this image is that a new social balance has been reached in which the widest possible segments of society are now participating in governance and the sharing is therefore done more fairly.

Setting political differences aside for a moment, we can say that this participation is auspicious and is making the opposition more familiar with the responsibility toward this country, this people, this history and this culture. At the very least, there will inevitably be a mind that the very fact of having tasted the ability to get results through politics will impose on it. We can expect that, with this mind, it will have to go itself to the society that does not come to it. As a result, we can hope that Türkiye's democracy will develop by maturing further.

The AK Parti, for its part, which brought a real revolution to Türkiye through arduous struggles both in the political sphere and in the dimension of social-economic development, has correctly concluded that, in order to continue giving political competition its due in a manner commensurate with its own record, it needs an effective update.

The update in fact requires not a break from the fundamental principles, values and style that make the AK Parti the AK Parti, but on the contrary a return to them.

The problem is not in those principles, but in the AK Parti's drifting away from those principles over time. In one of the earlier elections, the Chairman and President, Mr. Erdoğan, had diagnosed this drift as a "metal fatigue" that had formed in the party cadres, and the solution pursued was to purge the cadres in which traces of this fatigue were seen.

In my opinion, both in the diagnosis of these metal-fatigued ones and in the treatment given to them, and in the choice of the cadres substituted in their place, the path taken has led to greater problems. When the rotation of posts in a political movement takes place in an atmosphere of purge, it causes new offended masses to form at every stage.

Moreover, when the incoming cadres leave no bond of loyalty and affection with the old ones, and even display a "devri sabık" practice regarding the offices they take over, it can lead to an atmosphere of rupture in which no continuity remains between old and new in the party. Yet the AK Parti, which was founded on a strong tradition, can now come to struggle to form within itself a tradition of ideas, struggle and conduct.

On Friday, at the AK Parti Provincial Chairs Meeting, our esteemed President announced that the Ordinary Congress process would be taken up a year earlier than expected. This is in fact the most urgent remedy for the pains created by the situation in question, especially for the diagnoses made in the post-election evaluations. In entering this path, it is clear that some cadres will be refreshed, renewed, changed.

Refreshment, renewal, change... Whichever word we choose, the diagnoses on which the handovers to be carried out rest must certainly be made far more carefully than the diagnosis of the metal-fatigued ones. It must be ensured that people who have contributed within the party act with the feeling that they are truly handing on a baton in a race of service and labor.

Of course, the way to ensure this passes first of all through choosing people who hold this philosophy. Unfortunately, the AK Parti experiences here the handicap of being a ruling party, and an effective measure against it has still not been put forward. In a ruling party there are many who covet office with ambition but have no connection whatsoever with the cause the party has embraced. They have no desire other than to take the lion's share of the ruling party's power, but to get into the department they do not shy away from disguising themselves as the finest mujahids of the cause. Of course, the cause is a cause only up to the point where it gives them a post, a position, spoils. The AK Parti's principles, aims, philosophy do not concern them in the least.

It can of course be appreciated that it is not very easy to establish the balance of this in a party that, as a mass party, has been in power alone for 17 years, but the issue is for this political habitus to turn into a tradition of the party, and the Congress will offer a serious opportunity for an update in this regard. These words that Erdoğan said in the speech in which he announced the Ordinary Congress process are a harbinger that the AK Parti, a party that has transformed Türkiye, will not shy away, when the time comes, from beginning the transformation with itself:

"It is unthinkable for a party that transforms the country to exempt itself from this. Our aim, as it has been until today and will be from now on, is to enlarge the AK Parti family with cadres that are persons of character, who have a word to say, who are assertive, who are equipped with the values of our nation. In the coming period, besides strengthening the cadres of our organizations, we will also add new methods to traditional ways of doing politics. If necessary, by creating new units, we will make our organizations more active in the process of making politics."

It is very clear that the party needs an update, but this need is not one that can be met by being content with a change of cadres alone.. Of course there are many issues that call for an update also in discourses, policies and programs. Indeed, we need to begin first of all with our understanding and practice of justice, which also forms the name of the party and is the head of everything.

Justice is the essence of the matter. The measure, balance and feeling of whether a thing is in its proper place.

Let us continue with this.