The possible scenario is that they both would agree that Gul would take the leadership of the AKP and fight to become Prime Minister in the parliamentary elections in 2015, bringing together the party ranks after the era of Erdogan. The ambitious and hyperactive foreign policy yielded real results during the second term of the Party of Justice and Development as well as impetus to the doctrine of Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu for Turkey’s "strategic depth". In this period, the country began to emerge as a regional leading power and became a positive model for the Arab countries in terms of the transition to democracy, market economy and the rule of law, and of the integration with the West. The Arab Spring, however, did not respond to these plans. The outcomes in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt and the ongoing war in Syria are here. Observers are already talking about an "Arab Winter". We are witnessing the reverse process, instead of Turkey becoming a model for those countries. Turkey is receding from the West and is approaching the orbit of the Middle East and of the anti-democratic regimes in those countries, where chaos will continue to reign for many years.
- Nevertheless, the Turkish economy looks like an "island of stability" in a sea of ​​economic instability. How would you explain this?
- Two years ago, the Turkish economy enjoyed unprecedented economic growth despite the global financial crisis that had hit the world in 2008. The incomes per capita in Turkey increased three times in 10 years, mega-infrastructure projects such as "Marmaray", the tunnel that connects Asia and Europe, were built as well as a third bridge over the Bosphorus and a third airport... In this period 80% of Turkish citizens believed in the European future of their country. Due to the European crisis that had hit mainly Greece, along with Ireland, and rocked the economies of other European Union countries, opinions were expressed in Turkey that it did not need the European Union any longer. However,  GEZİ PARK first and the spectacular corruption scandal later, in which the government suspected a conspiracy on the part of "external and internal enemies" who were jealous of the success of Erdogan and his party, showed the world that "there is something wrong" in Turkey. Moreover, the unpopular Turks who are not part of the social engineering by Erdogan and whom he calls "the other 50%", were able to unmask the Turkish leader who, until then, had presented himself as a democrat and reformer, a second Ataturk and a world rank leader. This showed the true face of the Turkish Prime Minister, who had managed to split the nation instead of reconciling Kemalism and political Islam. It became clear to all that he was intolerant towards the western way of life and thinking, and that democracy was a tool for him to achieve his true goals. All this had eventually shaken the confidence in the Turkish lira and caused the withdrawal of a significant part of foreign investors. Over 100 billion dollars had been withdrawn from the country after the crisis on 17 December, according to the Prime Minister himself, who threatened during an election rally that a cataclysm would  follow if he was not re-elected. Furthermore, because of the different positions of Turkey and Saudi Arabia and Qatar regarding the military coup in Egypt last July, the pouring of "hot money" from these two Arab republics into Turkey had stopped as well. Erdogan harshly criticized the coup of General Sissy in Cairo and strongly opposed it, unlike Turkey's western partners who, by keeping silence, had tacitly expressed satisfaction with the overthrowing of President Mursi and with the arrest of other leaders and activists of the Muslim Brotherhood. The positions are similar to those of the Saudi Sunni brothers just in respect of the common desire to overthrow the regime of Bashar al-Assad and in terms of their support for the Syrian opposition forces, many of which involve jihadists, Al Nusra, Al Qaeda, Ishida and other radical Sunni Islamist groups. In this way, however, Turkey is incurring the wrath of Shia Iran and Hezbollah, which strongly support the Alevi Baathist government in Damascus. The government has been forced to increase the interest rate on deposits in Turkish lira and take other emergency measures in the banking sector as well as to intervene in the activities of the central bank, which has sold a total of 1.2 billion dollars in foreign exchange auctions to control the collapse of the Turkish lira against the dollar. Despite the tense election atmosphere that has a negative impact because of the political instability, it cannot be said that the economy is in crisis, even though the events have led to the lowering of Turkey’s credit rating. To summarize, the municipal elections will be very critical, as they will be a test for the future of the Party of Justice and Development on the political horizon.