Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's purges among the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) administrators have been continuing since he reacquired the chairmanship of AKP following the highly disputed April 16 referendum.
Erdoğan on Sept. 19 had demanded the resignation of 12 provincial chairmen of the party. It is reported that he designated new provincial chairmen after personally interviewing them.
Erdoğan's purges took an effect in a context where the powers that previously backed him, like some part of Turkish bourgeoisie and imperialist centres, started to talk of "an AKP without Erdoğan", meaning these powers had no problem with the reactionary and anti-popular climate of Turkey but with Erdoğan himself.
Following his acquisition of AKP chairmanship, Erdoğan started to exercise more control over the AKP and used purges among the AKP to that end.
Speaking to AKP MPs and ministers on a meeting of the AKP on July 27, President Erdoğan uttered "the tired shall step aside", and forced many of AKP administrators to resign.
Both the national and international media regarded Erdoğan's purges as an act of consolidating his power within the AKP, where he embarked on a mission to sort out the unwanted party members and administrators.
One of the purged AKP administrator, who refrained from giving his name, spoke to Financial Times in August 2017, commenting that President Erdoğan uses inside-AKP purges also as a way of sorting out Fethullahist party members. The unnamed interviewee also said "I wonder whether Erdoğan himself is not tired as well".
