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The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has delivered clear signals that its leader, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, will run in Turkey’s first ever direct election for president in August.

A decision made in a five-hour long meeting of the AKP’s highest decision-making body, the Central Decision and Executive Council (MKYK), on May 2 is considered to be the clearest of these signals, with the party ultimately opting to maintain its three-term limit for its deputies.

Current chairman of Felicity (Saadet) Party Mustafa Kamalak was re-elected at the party's 5th regular Congress May 4. Kamalak got 656 votes while his rival Fatih Erbakan, the son of the late party chairman and iconic politician Necmettin Erbakan, had 212 votes.
 
“We neither approve of covering up corruption, nor approve of the parallel structure in the state. No one can partner us with their sins,” Kamalak said May 4, addressing the Congress.

Kamalak said their struggle was not for the Prime Ministry post, but seeking rights for workers and the poor.

The Justice and Development Party (AK Party) has, for the most part, decided on its strategy for the presidential election in August and will seek a plan to switch to a de facto presidential or semi-presidential system, which opposition parties have slammed as a move that will pave the way for dictatorship.
 
“This would lead to a de facto dictatorship,” Faruk Bal, deputy chairman of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), told Today's Zaman, noting that as per the Constitution, presidents are not accountable for their acts before the law.

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has decided to maintain a three-term limit for its deputies, the clearest signal yet that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan will run for the presidency in an August election, the party said on May 2.

There has been speculation the AKP would change its rules to enable Erdoğan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade, to stay on as prime minister for a fourth term and finish off a power struggle with U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gülen he accuses of seeking to topple him.

The prosecutor who sparked controversy by sending a summons “by mistake” to the main opposition leader, Republican People’s Party (CHP) head Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, said the matter had been “exaggerated." In an extensive written statement released on May 2, he also confirmed that the plaintiff was the Turkish prime minister’s son, Bilal Erdoğan.

Turkey's ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has decided to maintain a three-term limit for its deputies, the clearest signal yet that Prime Minister Tayyip Erdoğan will run for the presidency in an August election, the party said on May 2.

There has been speculation the AKP would change its rules to enable Erdoğan, who has dominated Turkish politics for more than a decade, to stay on as prime minister for a fourth term and finish off a power struggle with U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gülen he accuses of seeking to topple him.

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) is scared of workers, Turkey’s main opposition leader has said, condemning the police crackdown on protesters wanting to celebrate May Day at Taksim Square.

“The government is scared of the worker. I condemn this unfair intervention that is made on May Day, Labor Day,” main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kiliçdarpglu said.

The government chooses to remain silent about recent attacks by the terrorist Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) for fear that the settlement process might be destroyed and to be able to get support in the upcoming presidential election from voters of the pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), analysts have said.  

Engin Alan, who was elected to Parliament in 2011 from the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), should be released from prison, parliamentary speaker Cemil Çiçek said on April 30.

Alan is being tried under arrest over allegations of links to the Ergenekon coup plot.     

Çiçek said Sabahat Tuncel, one of the two charged MPs, is currently free to carry out her legislative responsibilities, but Alan remains in prison. Çiçek stressed, “The case of prisoner Alan is unfair, and this injustice should be rectified,” responding to questions from journalists at Parliament in Ankara.