President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Friday promised to compensate for his ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AK Party) unprecedented losses in last year’s local elections.
“We will work wholeheartedly to make up for the road crash in the March 31 elections at the first possibility,” Erdoğan told supporters of the AK Party at a provincial congress in the western Denizli province.
The party has held several conventions across Türkiye since October in an effort to promote Erdoğan’s postelection message that focused on “change” within the party, both in its cadres and policies.
Several heads of the party’s local branches had already stepped down from their posts, while some incumbents decided not to run in intraparty elections. Congresses at provincial and district levels will conclude with a national congress.
The AK Party plans to hold its national congress on Feb. 23, according to its deputy chair, Erkan Kandemir.
Party members describe the congress program as “a period in which the party is growing, strengthening and fortifying its cadres.”
Key changes took place in the AK Party’s primary cast, as well as women’s and youth’s branches, including the senior cadres of local branches in 47 cities.
Erdoğan has attended 15 provincial congresses so far, including in his hometown, Rize, western Bursa and southern Mardin provinces, while senior AK Party figures and lawmakers participated in all events.
The president will attend the congresses in Izmir, Türkiye’s third largest city and a stronghold of the main opposition, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), on Feb. 1.
He will also attend a congress in the capital, Ankara, on Feb. 7 and in Istanbul on Feb. 8.
Erdoğan will visit 30 cities in total for the provincial congresses. This weekend, he will be traveling to southeastern Diyarbakır and Şanlıurfa provinces.
The AK Party aims to raise its vote rate to 50% in the upcoming elections, Erdoğan has said.
A general election is scheduled for 2028, while the CHP, encouraged by municipal vote gains, campaigns for an early election.
In Rize, he highlighted the AK Party’s successful record as the ruling party in the past two decades and touted congresses as “a new period of resurrection.”
In Denizli, he praised his government’s success in boosting the national income from $236 billion in 2002 to $1.13 billion in 2023.
“We have accomplished this despite the obstinate opposition,” Erdoğan said.
Hitting out at his main opposition’s “unchanging mentality,” Erdoğan also lambasted their “sorrow” over the revolution in neighboring Syria.
“They cannot digest the fall of the Baathist regime, with which they share a mental affinity,” he said.