AKP

The economy has become one of the hotly debated topics in Turkey prior to the general elections on June 7. There is now a quasi-consensus that the upcoming election is one of the crucial turning points in the history of contemporary Turkish politics. The Justice and Development Party (AKP in the Turkish acronym), which has been ruling the country with single-party majority governments for about 13 years, aims to gain enough seats again to replace the current parliamentary system with a presidential one.

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In the early days of the Arab uprisings, Turkey was seen as the “winner.” Yet after more than two years Turkey has lost most of its lucrative economic relations with the region, begun to experience crisis in its relations with several regional countries, and more significantly so far has failed to achieve its foreign policy goals.  How has this happened? Why has Turkey faced significant challenges to its foreign policy in the Middle East after the Arab uprisings?

The ongoing mass movement in Turkey is without precedent in the country’s history. The peaceful demonstrations that started during the last week of May have turned out to be a blow to the Erdogan’s government international reputation following the much-publicized police interventions and the on-going nature of the situation, which has shown no sign of easing for a long time.