Values of Turkey’s ruling AKP rapidly weakening: Former PM Davutoğlu

ANKARA

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The values of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) are “rapidly weakening,” former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said, commenting on a file that emerged online in 2016 that called for the resignation of several figures from the AKP. 

“We witnessed an incident called the ‘Pelican Briefing.’ Unfortunately, this was done against many figures from the AKP,” Davutoğlu said in an interview on the Kanal 24 TV station.

The “Pelican Brief” was an anonymous Wordpress blog post that was published online on May 1, 2016, written by a man who claimed to be a staunch supporter of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. It alleged that Davutoğlu had “betrayed” Erdoğan by not pushing hard enough for the executive presidential system and also by “collaborating with the West and its Trojan horses [inside Turkey] who want to topple the chief.”

Davutoğlu resigned several days later, leaving his post to Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım. 

“The AKP is rapidly weakening its own values. Reputation assassinations are being conducted. What saddened us most was the silence of our friends on the issue,” Davutoğlu said, adding that similar attempts were being directed at the head of the Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet), Mehmet Görmez.

Meanwhile, Davutoğlu and former Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç did not attend an iftar fast-breaking meal hosted by Prime Minister Yıldırım in Ankara on June 5. 

Yıldırım had sent an invitation to former AKP lawmakers who were on duty between the 22nd and 26th terms for the iftar meal. Some 1,200 guests attended the event and two seats were reserved at Yıldırım’s table for Davutoğlu and Arınç but they were left empty. 

Also on June 5, an Ankara court ordered the arrest of Arınç’s son-in-law, Ekrem Yeter, after police detained him as a part of an ongoing investigation into the Fethullahist Terrorist Organization (FETÖ), widely believed to have been behind the failed July 15, 2016 coup attempt.