Former Turkish President Gül holds meeting with former PM Davutoğlu ahead of snap polls

ANKARA

Former President Abdullah Gül held a meeting with Turkey’s former prime and foreign minister Ahmet Davutoğlu in Ankara on April 23, daily Habertürk has reported.

The meeting, held 61 days before the rescheduled elections set for June 24, reportedly lasted for an hour.

The two man have been in regular contact since leaving their official posts in the government, sources said, but the timing of the April 23 meeting has drawn attention ahead of the snap election due to take place on June 24.

Felicity Party (SP) leader Temel Karamollaoğlu is also set to meet main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu and İYİ (Good) Party leader Meral Akşener this week in the capital Ankara before visiting Gül, who served as president of Turkey from 2007 to 2014, in Istanbul on April 25.

On April 21, Karamollaoğlu brought together his party’s general executive board members for a meeting in the capital Ankara. The members discussed the roadmap the party will follow during the election campaign process, with Karamollaoğlu reportedly instructing them to determine the names of the candidates to be nominated for the parliamentary elections.

The SP has also sped up its polling work, asking respondents “which party the SP should form an alliance with” and “which alliance appealed to them most.” They were also asked about their opinions on suggested names for the presidential elections, including Gül. 

Parliament on April 20 approved a joint proposal of the longtime ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) to hold snap elections on June 24, 2018, a year-and-a-half before the originally scheduled date.

Gül and Erdoğan were among the founders of the AKP back in 2001. The AKP entered office in 2002 after winning the first elections in which it took part just 14 months after its establishment.