RIDING on robust growth and democratic reforms, Turkey’s pro-Islamist Justice and Development (AK) party has won three terms in power since 2002. With parliamentary elections due on June 7th, its secular rivals gloomily thought that AK was poised for another victory. That was until Bulent Arinc, the government spokesman and a founding member of the party, let rip at his leader.
Over the past week, Mr Arinc has been doing what no AK official had ever dared: publicly castigating Turkey’s autocratic president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Mr Arinc called his fellow AK founder “emotional”, and said he had harmed himself by criticising peace talks between the government and the imprisoned Kurdish leader Abdullah Ocalan.
The conflict quickly developed into a free-for-all between Mr Arinc and the president’s supporters. Ankara’s AK mayor, Melih Gokcek, came to Mr Erdogan’s defence, demanding that Mr Arinc resign. Mr Arinc in turn accused Mr Gokcek of corruption. Turkey’s prime minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, scolded both men for breaching party discipline. A public prosecutor launched probes of potential wrongdoing by both Mr Gokcek and Mr Arinc.
But the dispute goes far beyond charges of corruption, argues Soli Ozel, a political scientist at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University. Mr Arinc, he says, has “opened a Pandora’s box”. For the first time, divisions within the…
The Economist: Europe
