Signs of revolt appear in Turkey’s ruling AKP

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AKP party is facing mounting criticism over its domestic and international policies. On Tuesday, Bulent Arinc, Presidential High Advisory Board member and former deputy prime minister, resigned following a dispute with Erdogan over recent remarks in which Arinc criticized the imprisonment of Kurdish politician Selahattin Demirtas and prominent businessperson and dissident civil society figure Osman Kavala. “Turkey’s judiciary, economy, and other areas evidently need reforms. There is a need for our country to relax and to find a solution to our nation’s troubles,” he said on Twitter.

The move followed the resignation of Berat Albayrak, the finance minister and son-in-law

‘The super-presidential system has only worsened Turkey’s governance record.’

Berk Esen Analyst

of Erdogan, this time with a bombshell Instagram post on Sunday night.

There are several rumors about cracks within the People’s Alliance, formed between the AKP and Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), although MHP leader Devlet Bahceli dismissed them on Tuesday.

Arinc’s resignation will have sent a strong message to Europe and the incoming Biden administration in the US that Turkey is “not really ready” to take serious steps in judicial reform, Louis Fishman, a Turkey expert from Brooklyn College, told Arab News.

Berk Esen, a political scientist from Sabanci University in Istanbul, said: “The super-presidential system has only worsened Turkey’s governance record in domestic politics and the international arena.”