AKP to mark 24th anniversary with unity-themed event

ANKARA

The ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) will celebrate its 24th anniversary on Aug. 14 with a “meaningful” program, reflecting on more than two decades in power and highlighting its vision for the future.

The anniversary events will be held under the theme “The Story of 24 Years, a Türkiye of Unity and Brotherhood,” deputy AKP leader Faruk Acar told state-run Anadolu Agency on Aug. 12.

"We will have slogans, content, visuals, films... and some other activities," Acar said.

"We will all strive to convey... our satisfaction in being members of this family and what we have been striving to achieve in our country for 24 years."

A documentary about these years will be shown at a “modest but meaningful” program, organized by the party’s promotion and media directorate led by Acar.

According to Acar, the highlight of the celebration will be a speech by President and AKP leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

“The main agenda item of this meeting will again be the sentiments of our president,” he said. “We all expect him to share with us here what this 24-year journey, this story, means to his side, and what has happened during this process.”

Acar said the campaign promoting the party’s activities will last a year.

“We want to remind our voters, our supporters and all the people who have supported us with their prayers, their votes and their presence, of what we have done for 24 years,” he said.

The program comes amid public meetings organized by the AKP across the country to explain its "Century of Türkiye" vision to citizens.

One of the main topics of these meetings is the government’s ongoing "terror-free Türkiye" initiative, Acar said. The theme of the celebration program was chosen accordingly, he added.

“In these days when each of us begins our sentences with unity, we have created our motto accordingly,” he said.

As part of the anti-terrorism initiative, PKK first declared a ceasefire and then announced its decision to disband and lay down its arms in line with a call from its jailed leader, Abdullah Öcalan.

This process became possible when Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) leader Devlet Bahçeli, a key ally of Erdoğan, publicly urged Öcalan to renounce terrorism in parliament.