27 November 2009 / YENİ ŞAFAK FEHMİ KORU,
There are widespread debates going on now about allegations that there has been a significant shift in Turkish foreign policy. But even though it may not be particularly noticeable right now, the real clues point to a shift in internal policies going on.
The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) may have been in power now for eight years, but some people are only now discovering the basic characteristics of the AK Party. And there is a significant faction of people who, due to preconceptions, do not at all understand what these basic characteristics are. If the AK Party has always proven wrong those who expected it to act mistakenly, this is due to the fact that even when it was being founded, it was a resolutely “centrist party.” There cannot be ideological fixations in a centrist party; any political party that gives credence to these sorts of fixations cannot occupy a spot in the center.
