Harnessing the power of think tanks: AK Party builds its own parallel structure

By CUMALİ ÖNAL, İSTANBUL

Today Zaman - 26 January 2014

Having removed thousands of people from their positions in the bureaucracy as a part of what it termed a struggle against a widespread “parallel structure,” the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) is now occupied with implementing a structure under its own control in a variety of arenas.

This new structure covers everything from the business world to education ("imam hatip" high schools in particular), the bureaucracy to the justice system and the police department to religious communities that receive support from the government.
Certain media institutions supported by the government are laying down the foundations for this new structure in the public eye. Leading the way on this are think tanks the Foundation for Political, Economic, and Societal Research (SETA) and the Strategic Thought Institute (SDE).
Both SETA and SDE -- which have enormous budgets as a result of being funded by business interests close to the government -- are even seen by some as the “parallel structure” of the AK Party government.

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