Editing Justice and Development Party (section)

==Controversies==
===Torture and censorship during Gezi protests===
Nationwide protests broke out against the alleged [[authoritarianism]] of the AKP in 2013, with the party's heavy-handed response receiving international condemnation and stalling the party's once championed EU accession negotiations. Since then, the party has brought about tighter regulations on internet use, abortion and alcohol consumption, having temporarily blocked access to Twitter and YouTube in March 2014. Especially after the government corruption scandal involving several AKP ministers in 2013, the party has been increasingly accused of crony capitalism. The AKP favours a strong centralized leadership, having long advocated a presidential system of government and significantly reduced the number of elected local government positions in 2013.

Much of the Turkish media downplayed and censored the protests, especially in the early stages. The government estimates that approximately 3.6 million people actively participated in approximately 5,000 demonstrations across Turkey linked to the first Gezi Park protests. Twenty-two people died and more than 8,000 were injured, many seriously. During the protests, the government used [[police brutality]], and some sources mention that some stray animals were injured during the suppression of the protests.
===2013 corruption scandal===
The 2013 corruption scandal in Turkey or 17–25 December Corruption and Bribery Operation was a criminal investigation that involved several key people in the Turkish government. All of the 52 people detained on 17 December were connected in various ways with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). Prosecutors accused 14 people – including Suleyman Aslan, the director of state-owned Halkbank, Iranian businessman Reza Zarrab, and several family members of cabinet ministers – of bribery, corruption, fraud, money laundering and gold smuggling.

At the heart of the scandal was an alleged "gas for gold" scheme with Iran involving Aslan, who had US$4.5 million in cash stored in shoeboxes in his home, and Zarrab, who was involved in about US$9.6 billion of gold trading in 2012. Both men were arrested. The scheme started after Turkish government officials found a loophole in the U.S. sanctions against Iran that allowed them to access Iranian oil and gas. Turkey exported some US$13 billion of gold to Iran directly, or through the UAE, between March 2012 and July 2013. In return, the Turks received Iranian natural gas and oil. The transactions were carried out through the Turkish state-owned bank, Halkbank. In January 2013, the Obama administration decided to close this loophole but instead of immediately charging Halkbank, the U.S. government allowed its gold trading activities to continue until July 2013, because Turkey was an important ally regarding the American-led intervention in the Syrian Civil War, and the U.S. had been working on a nuclear deal with Iran.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the prime minister of the period, claimed that the judiciary and police officers who carried out the investigation were directed by the [[Fethullahists|Gülen Movement]] and were involved in the "parallel state" structure. Following the investigations, Egemen Bagis was dismissed from his position as Minister of European Union Affairs. Minister of Internal Affairs Muammer Güler, Minister of Economy Zafer Çağlayan, Minister of Environment and Urbanization Erdoğan Bayraktar resigned from their ministerial positions; Bayraktar also resigned from his seat in parliament. In the vote held in the Turkish Grand National Assembly on January 5, 2015, it was decided not to send former ministers to the Supreme Court.

Then-Prime Minister Erdoğan (now President of Turkey) was on a tour of Pakistan when the scandal broke, which analysts believe changed the response of the AKP, or influenced those with the tapes to leak them at a time when Erdoğan was visiting an ally (Pakistan).