ABSTRACT
The Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (AKP) focused on consolidating the support of the electorate in the 2007 elections and capitalizing on the support of people to legitimize its rule and policies. The years between 2008 and 2014 demonstrate a critical transformation from push to pull and from Europeanization to a more controversial phase of domestic change in Turkey. The decrease in the Turkish public support for European Union (EU) membership also supported this picture and signalled that the EU accession process of Turkey had become a low denominator in domestic politics. Most importantly, the EU has become less attractive to many, including the Turkish government after the Eurozone crisis. Linked to the domestic crises, polarization and, therefore, AKP’s survival anxiety, a significant change in the push-pull balance within the strategic calculations of the AKP in favour of the pull emerged in this era. Most importantly, the referendum demonstrated a highly polarized and divided society over the AKP’s policies and reforms.
