Erdoğan Opens Transfer Season from the Opposition with 'Turkey Consensus' Call

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan personally pinned badges on parliamentary deputies and mayors who have crossed over from opposition parties at AKP's 25th founding anniversary event; his 'Turkey consensus' call at the ceremony is being read within the party as the first signal of the political direction for the period ahead.

According to information obtained by Cumhuriyet from AKP sources, the party leadership is preparing to continue contacts with deputies and political figures from different parties following Parliament's opening of the new legislative year. Party officials do not view these steps merely as a move to increase the number of seats in Parliament; they assess that a dual message is being sent to the public simultaneously: 'AKP is growing, the opposition is shrinking.'

According to senior party figures, the 'Turkey consensus' rhetoric is not limited to the PKK disarmament process; it defines a broader line aimed at reaching different political and social segments. In this framework, the defections are interpreted as sending a message to both center-right and nationalist voter bases.

Since its first period in power in 2002, AKP has occasionally shifted parliamentary arithmetic in its favor through defections from other parties; however, a transfer strategy institutionalized under the name of 'consensus' is being articulated publicly at this scale on a party platform for the first time.