Fears of growing authoritarianism underpinned much of the criticism, and some analysts point to the arrest in March of two high-profile investigative journalists as marking a watershed in liberal Western attitudes to the AK Party.
U osnovi velikog dela kritika je strah od porasta autoritarizma, a neki analitičari upiru na hapšenje dvojice istaknutih istraživačkih novinara u martu kao na prekretnicu u liberalnim zapadnim stavovima prema AKP.