President rewards some figures from AK Party’s past with appointments.. What does this signify?

Two figures from the founding team of AK Party have been assigned some important posts by President Tayyip Erdoğan. Bülent Arınç has become the member of the High Advisory Council of the Presidency, a recently formed advisory body. According to the news, Abdülkadir Aksu, another name from the same founding team, has been chosen as the head of  the Executive Board of VakıfBank.

Both of these people were being kept away from the administrative posts in the government and the party for some time.

Some people seem to be upset about this initiative of Erdoğan. Those, who gushed over these two men -and others as well who were in the same position of neglect by the President- are now angry because they feel to be thrown a curve by this attempt for endowing  Arınç and Aksu with prestige, and they reveal their anger. It is understandable that some dissident voices within or around the party unhappy about losing so-called comrades also look adversely at this sharp turn in Erdoğan’s conduct.

Them and Ahmet Davutoğlu…

In fact, Erdoğan’s initiative and the positive responses of Bülent Arınç and Abdülkadir Aksu to accept these new positions are both correct.

Arınç and Aksu have never really moved away from the party, not a bit. They seemed to be discontent because they were kept away from important positions. People who thought of these two figures as ‘dissidents‘ were actually wrong.