Turkish Political Crisis: Davutoglu Set to Quit after Talks Fail

Local Editor

In a new aspect of escalated tension on the Turkish political arena, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, may give up his premiership, after failed talks with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over his independence as the elected leader of the country.

The talks showed that even though Erdogan occupies a ceremonial post, he continues to wield enough power to dispose of opponents and control all aspects of government.

Davutoglu is planning to call an extraordinary party congress and will not run for the leadership of the Justice and Development, or AK, party, which has ruled Turkey since 2002.

If he follows through with that decision Friday, when he is scheduled to hold a press conference, it would rule him out from serving as prime minister within weeks.

One person familiar with the matter cautioned that his decision might change, depending on a continuing effort to gauge the level of support he still has within the party.

AK party insiders described a chaotic rush to choose a successor, while awaiting word from the president about whom he anoints.

Possible successors included Binali Yildirim, the transport minister, whose name was included in a now-quashed corruption investigation in 2013; Berat Albayrak, the energy minister and son-in-law of the president; and Bekir Bozdag, the justice minister. All three are considered loyal to the president.

The Turkish lira dropped as much 4.5 per cent against the dollar, on a day when Turkish stocks slid more than 2 per cent, as investors shuddered at the prospect of a protracted leadership battle in a $720bn economy plagued by inflation, foreign debt, a five-year long war on its border with Syria and a violent insurgency in big cities.

Handpicked as his successor when Erdogan ascended to the presidency in 2014, Davutoglu had long chafed under Erdogan's refusal to be a ceremonial president, even as he publicly supported plans for a referendum to strengthen the office of the president.

A soft-spoken man with a genial, ever-smiling presence, Davutoglu eventually proved incapable of outmaneuvering Erdogan's supporters in both the media and parliament.

The decision to remove himself from running as leader of the AK party, which Mr Erdogan co-founded before winning three successive terms as prime minister, came after a day of pointed barbs and shuttle diplomacy between Davutoglu's team and the presidential palace.

"There was a lot of hope during the day that the PM would be able to resolve the situation with respect towards the president," said one person on Davutoglu's team.

"Davutoglu does not have sufficient support either in the AK party or in Turkey as a whole to be able to challenge Erdogan's authority."

When Davutoglu finally drove to the $600m palace, originally constructed as a residence for the prime minister, but eventually occupied by the president, he told his advisers that he planned to appeal to Erdogan to respect the constitutional powers he held, in exchange for renewed support for a referendum later this year, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The 90-minute meeting ended without a statement from either side. One person close to the prime minister said that the talks were cordial but eventually inconclusive.

The two had sparred for months on issues including the pre-trial detention of academics and journalists, the opening talks of with Kurdish separatists, the appointment of an independent central bank governor and an increasing embrace of the EU.

With Davutoglu close to finalising an agreement with the EU that would bring Turks the much-valued right to travel freely to the Schengen region, Erdogan moved to rein him in, stripping him of the ability to appoint local leaders within the AK party.

Erdogan saw the deal as an attempt by Davutoglu to create his own power base, said Wolfango Piccoli, an analyst at Teneo Intelligence.

Davutoglu, who addressed parliament earlier on Wednesday with uncharacteristic brevity, hinted at his own possible resignation. He said that he was prepared to turn down "any job that a mortal would not think of leaving".

Erdogan alluded to the same political calculus on Wednesday, while addressing a group of local leaders, making clear that his superior success at the polls for more than a decade gave him the authority to assert his authority beyond what the Turkish constitution allows.

"There is no difference between a village head who could not win the hearts of the people in his village or neighborhood and a president who could not win the support of his people," Erdogan said in Ankara, according to televised reports. "What matters is that you should not forget how you got to your post, what you should do there and what your targets are."

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team