Turkey’s former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, once a close ally of President Erdogan, announced on Friday the launch of his new political party, named “Future Party.” Aim of the party is to challenge Erdogan and weaken support to the party he once also belonged to, the AKP.
“The future is our nation’s, the future is Turkey,” he said at a ceremony where he announced the name and logo, as well as the principles of the new party.
“Despite all the pressures and the climate of fear trying to be created, we came together to draw a prosperous future for our country,” Davutoglu said.
Davutoglu, 60, served as prime minister from 2014 to 2016, before falling out with Erdogan. He has criticized the president and the AK Party’s (AKP) economic management, and accused it of curbing basic liberties and free speech.
“Religious structures will be prevented from tending parallel structures through the intervention in the structure of the state which functions in rational bureaucratic mechanisms,” Davutoglu said on Friday.
Davutoglu announced his resignation from the Islamist-rooted AKP in September, after the party launched disciplinary action against him and three other party dissidents. Six other AKP members also declared their resignation along with Davutoglu.
The former PM said that the party which has dominated Turkish politics for 17 years was no longer able to solve the country’s problems and was preventing internal debate.
Elaborating on his recent criticisms of the AKP’s policies, Davutoglu earlier said: “We aimed to invite the current AKP administration, which has departed from its founding principles and political mission, to give an account.”
His resignation came two months after former deputy prime minister Ali Babacan also left the AKP, citing deep differences. Babacan said last month that Turkey was in a “dark tunnel”, and warned of the dangers of “one-man rule”.
Babacan will announce his own rival political party within weeks, a source close to Babacan said.
Do these two former Erdogan allies have enough power to challenge the Turkish President? For the time being, hardly.
(hurriyetdailynews, reuters)
