Erdoğan opens transfer season with 'Turkey Consensus' call to opposition

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan personally pinned badges on lawmakers and mayors who have defected from opposition parties at AKP's 25th anniversary event; his 'Turkey Consensus' call at the ceremony is being read within the party as the first signal of the political line for the period ahead.

According to information obtained by Cumhuriyet from AKP sources, the party leadership is preparing to continue contacts with lawmakers and political figures from different parties following the start of Parliament's new legislative session. Party officials do not view these moves solely as a maneuver to increase the number of seats in Parliament; they assess that two simultaneous messages are being conveyed to the public: 'AKP is growing, the opposition is shrinking.'

According to officials, the 'Turkey Consensus' rhetoric is not limited only to the PKK disarmament process; it defines a broader line aimed at reaching different political and social segments. In this framework, the transfers are being interpreted as sending messages to both center-right and nationalist voter bases.

Since its first term in power in 2002, AKP has occasionally shifted Parliamentary arithmetic in its favor through transfers from other parties; however, a formalized transfer strategy institutionalized under the name of 'consensus' is being expressed this openly on the party platform at this scale for the first time.