Erdoğan started talking about 'change' after the elections of 14 May 2023, in which he was elected in the second round and his party, the AKP, suffered a significant loss of votes. The new cabinet announced in June of that year was also quite 'different'. Above all, there was a new zigzag in the management of the economy, which had been going on since 2019, and Mehmet Şimşek was put in charge of the 'programme' and his team.

For Erdoğan, however, the need to exploit the practical benefits of the word "change" has only increased with the local elections on 31 March 2024. After the near defeat in the local elections, 'change' became a promise that signalled not only the leaders of the state, but also the leadership of the AKP.

In August, five months after the election defeat and five months before the ordinary congress, Erdoğan said: "We will not look anyone in the eye. We will not allow anyone to stand in our way as we move forward with renewed vigour. The tired should step aside." And for these ambitious promises of change, he pointed to last Sunday's party congress: "We see our congress marathon as the main ground for the comprehensive change our nation expects of us.

The days do not stand still as they do on the calendar, August has turned into February and the Congress, which has been called "the main ground for a comprehensive change", has arrived. But Sunday showed that there is no movement that can be called a change; there are some transfers that are discredited and flimsy in terms of both method and actors... ... There was no strong infusion of young people from the base of the party, nor were there any forces from different social sectors to renew the representation. In the past, even in the elections that gave rise to these words of "change", Davutoğlu had transferred his opponents who had "opposed" him from the other side, who had said words that could be called "harsh" even in terms of the limits of the politics of order, and filled them into the party leadership. A selection of former İYİP members, the crew of Davutoğlu's lifeboat and "famous compatriots"...

This is a picture that shows how limited Erdoğan and his party are in terms of "change" or "renewal". But it does not stop there. The AKP did not only transfer "rival players" with lucrative contracts. As a natural consequence of its class-political orientation, it has also promoted some "special" names to managerial positions. Representatives of some of the conglomerates that have made a name for themselves in recent years have entered the AKP administration directly. Erkan Güral, the head of Kütahya Seramik, is one of the most notable names. Cihad Terzioğlu, the chairman of 360 Enerji, a company that has grown rapidly in a short time with its electric vehicle charging stations... There is also Hilal Kalyoncu, one of the heirs of Kalyon Holding, who has joined the AKP's central administration. These names are important because of their "representative" qualities. The bosses or the heirs of the "rising" companies in the "rising" sectors of the recent period are directly involved in the AKP administration. The general truth that the AKP is a "capital-patronage party" is no longer an abstraction but a direct reality. This is in line with the current relationship between capitalism and politics. Erdoğan had already started to derive his future Musks from the capitalist circles of his specific conditions. Obviously, this relationship is becoming "institutionalised". The legitimate question of what will become of the AKP after Erdoğan may also find its answer in this channel.

On the one hand, the AKP is fighting TUSIAD with arguments such as "the old tutelage period is over" and "nothing will be the same as before", while on the other hand it is directly assembling its own organic bourgeoisie into the party leadership. Perhaps the most decisive factor of "change" for the future of the AKP, and therefore for the future of Turkey, is to be sought in the class alliances that have been directly transformed into the list, rather than in the transfers that have been made in order to achieve a parliamentary arithmetic that will allow Erdoğan to run again.