Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan told a meeting of AKP provincial chairmen that in democracies, the source of legitimacy and authority comes from the people.
“Political parties represent the people directly by the authority that they received from the people and as the AKP, we are conducting politics on behalf of our nation,” he said.
“Our five years in power has proven that in our understanding of politics there is no ‘the other’ and no one can claim that AKP carried out politics for a specific group, region or a sect.”
“From the day it was founded the AKP has been the party of the center of the society, and it has embraced all of our citizens with the same sincerity,” he said.
“Those circles who have kept democracy and the people at arms length may not understand us,” said Erdogan. “Maybe those circles have no concern to get prepared for the 100th anniversary of our republic with a strong democracy and a strong economy but we will not take a single step backwards from that goal.”
Refering to the court case that could result in the AKP being banned for anti-secular activities, Erdogan said that “the political arena cannot be arranged by interventions from outside of politics.”
“It is the people who decide on the course of politics and it is the people who can only arrange the political area,” he said.
