Turkiye’s AK Party turns 25: A journey of change and renewal

Turkiye’s AK Party turns 25: A journey of change and renewal | Opinions | Al Jazeera Skip linksSkip to Contentplay Live Sign upShow navigation menuNavigation menuNewsShow more news sectionsAfrica.

Live Click here to searchsearchSign upNavigation menucaret-leftTrendingUS-Israel war on IranIsrael's ceasefire violationsDonald Trumpcaret-rightOPINIONOPINION, OpinionTurkiye’s AK Party turns 25: A journey of change and renewalThe party’s record of stability, development and democratic change has laid the foundations for a stronger, more independent Turkiye.

Secretário-geral do Partido AK, deputado por İzmir.

The greatest power behind this stability lies in the fact that this movement is not a rootless structure blown about by the wind. It carries on its shoulders, as a historical trust, the democratic struggle of the late Prime Minister Adnan Menderes and his companions, who sacrificed their lives for the nation’s beliefs during the arduous days of the single-party era.

The mighty plane tree founded by our President and Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdogan – under whose shade our nation and oppressed geographies have drawn a breath of relief for 25 years – is the very embodiment of this tremendous historical legacy.

While the lifespans of political parties are generally measured by election results or their terms in government, the AK Party’s ability to overcome successive global and national crises with the continuous support of vastly diverse social segments over 25 years can be explained by a much more structural concept: Its “capacity for political translation”.

This capacity is the process of accurately hearing the expectations, needs, and objections within society, transforming them into viable party programmes, budgets, and public policies, and submitting the resulting outcomes back for societal evaluation.

Social needs do not always arrive in politics as ready-made texts; it is here that the AK Party has established a colossal “translation” mechanism that turns seemingly disparate experiences into common problems and solutions.

Indeed, for someone of a generation like mine – who grew up in a Turkiye shaped by the AK Party, took on responsibilities in its youth branches since childhood, and today serves as a member of parliament and the party’s secretary-general – this political ground is the very essence of that transformation.

To grasp the magnitude of this transformation, one must look back at the Turkiye of the 1990s. It is essential to read those years not just as an “era of a unipolar world and severe economic crises”, but as a colossal “age of political collapse and instability” that paralysed the state and deepened societal fault lines.

Os anos 90 foram uma década perdida em que coalizões frágeis que duravam apenas meses, barganhas políticas e crises recorrentes abalaram a autoridade do Estado.

Enquanto assassinatos não resolvidos e uma espiral crescente de terror ameaçavam a vida dos cidadãos, por um lado, o punho pesado da tutela imposto sobre a política civil por meio do golpe pós-moderno de 28 de fevereiro usurpou explicitamente a vontade da nação, por outro.

Embora a participação eleitoral tenha alcançado 87 por cento nas eleições parlamentares durante essa era, esse alto interesse público na política não pôde se traduzir em uma capacidade de governar estável e eficaz, com nenhum partido conseguindo formar um governo de maioria.

O fechamento do Partido Refah em 1998 e do Partido Fazilet em 2001 por meio de tutela judicial criou uma profunda crise em relação à continuidade de canais legítimos de representação para as massas.

Portanto, o ano de 2001 foi um limiar histórico – não apenas um ano de falência econômica marcado por caixas registradoras sendo jogadas em protesto, mas o pico absoluto de fragmentação política, regimes tutelares, vulnerabilidades de governança e direitos constitucionais permanecendo estritamente no papel.

Herdando essa devastação política e econômica multidimensional, o Partido AK construiu os quadros mais experientes do mundo em todos os campos, desde segurança até economia, de política externa até políticas sociais, estabelecendo um estilo político "que muda o jogo.

At the core of this game-changing politics lies the dismantling of the “state commands its citizens” mentality, replacing it with the principle that “the state is the servant of the nation”.

Believing that true change lies in execution rather than packaging, the AK Party tore down the cold walls built between the state and the nation, making the nation’s red lines the same as the state’s.

The silent majority, who for decades had been left disheartened like “tenants” in their own homeland, rose with self-confidence to become the true “landlords” of their country.

Today, as the world’s largest and most dynamic school of politics with more than 12 million members, the AK Party conducts politics not by pontificating from television screens, but by directly sharing the burdens of the people and keeping a finger on the pulse of the streets.

The secret behind these victories is hidden in these devoted organisations that hold the nation’s consent above all else, and in the vision of the leader of this great march, our President and Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

O quarto de século do partido entrou para a história não por meio de destruições barulhentas e conflitos polarizantes, mas por meio de "revoluções silenciosas" institucionais tecidas ponto a ponto.

O Programa de Transformação da Saúde e os caças nacionais e veículos aéreos não tripulados (VANTs) produzidos na indústria de defesa são os blocos de construção dessa revolução.

Moreover, Turkiye does not view technological transformation merely as instrumental progress; it presents a brand new vision. By openly opposing the algorithmic exploitation of global digital giants, it advocates for a value-oriented and ethical technological order that places human dignity, privacy, and the family at its centre.

TEKNOFEST is not just a technology fair; it is a ceremony of institutional self-confidence where a generation – once intended to be manipulated in the streets during past coup eras – becomes the builder of this very moral and fully independent technological future.

The greatest outcome of this will for full independence is the historic struggle waged against the scourge of terrorism – which has made the nation weep blood – under the ideal of a “Terror-Free Turkiye”.

Recipes dictated from the outside have been crumpled up and thrown away; terrorism has been dried up at its source, and the dirty corridors intended to be established at our borders have been shattered by the “Turkiye Model”.

A Turkiye completely cleansed of terrorism has thwarted Israel’s expansionist ambitions built on dividing, weakening, and destabilising the region; it has become the greatest hope for the Palestinian cause, for Jerusalem, and for the oppressed in Gaza.

Viewing democracy not as a tool but as an unshakable value, this political mindset forever closed the dark parenthesis of tutelage opened on May 27, 1960, on the night of July 15, when the nation lay down in front of tanks and braved gun barrels.

This democratic resilience achieved at home has today made Turkiye the vanguard of a global conscience movement abroad.

A objeção levantada por nosso Presidente e Presidente do Conselho Recep Tayyip Erdogan de que “O Mundo é Maior que Cinco!” transformou-se em uma “Doutrina Erdogan” que mapeia a consciência da humanidade contra aqueles que se consideram mestres do globo.

Esta busca por justiça – encarnada na tragédia humana em Gaza, no bebê Aylan cujo corpo lavado sacudiu o mundo, e em um menino que recitou o Alcorão com seu último suspiro sob os escombros – é o indicador mais claro da determinação da Turquia em defender os direitos dos inocentes na diplomacia internacional.

Having long transcended artificial agendas and polemics in domestic politics, the AK Party’s true power in this multipolar world lies not only in the country’s economic and strategic capacity.

It lies in the unshakeable democratic legitimacy behind our President and Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdogan – one of the most senior and experienced heads of state in world politics – and in the profound trust that all oppressed peoples across the earth place in Turkiye.

Our tremendous state experience over the past quarter-century is our most solid reference; yet, this political movement, with its face always turned towards the future, is determined to build the “Century of Turkiye” vision on the axis of justice, compassion, and sustainable global peace by blending it with the nation’s internal dynamics.

In this new age marked by great trials that deeply affect humanity, under the leadership of our President and Chairman Recep Tayyip Erdogan – who shapes global politics with his unparalleled state experience and vision in the international arena – Turkiye marches forward with strong steps, shoulder to shoulder with our nation, as a playmaker towards new targets and a bright new quarter-century.

As opiniões expressas neste artigo são do próprio autor e não refletem necessariamente a posição editorial da Al Jazeera.