Turkish main opposition: Incompetent Davutoğlu rewarded with Prime Ministry

ANKARA

President-elect Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his successor at the prime minister's seat, Ahmet Davutoğlu, come out of a mosque in Ankara after performing their Friday prayers, Aug. 22. AA Photo

The leaders of the two major opposition parties have expressed their discontent at the nomination of Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu as the next ruling party Justice and Development Party (AKP) leader and prime minister by President-elect Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Both the Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) have consistently blamed Davutoğlu for a total failure in the country’s foreign policy.

“It means the era of a ‘puppet prime minister’ has begun. It doesn’t have any other meaning,” CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said when asked what Davutoğlu’s nomination meant for him.

“Look, the Davutoğlu and Erdoğan team gave Turkey a process we have never encountered before in the Republican era. And we are continuing to live [through this process],” Kılıçdaroğlu said in an interview with T24 news portal released Aug. 22.

For his part, MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli associated Davutoğlu and Erdoğan with the U.S.-led Broader Middle East and North Africa Initiative (BMENA), which was officially made public by the U.S. at a G8 summit in June 2004.

“President Erdoğan, party leader and Prime Minister Davutoğlu are the BMENA’s members that have turned the Middle East into a dungeon,” Bahçeli said Aug. 21, within hours of Davutoğlu’s nomination being announced.

The AKP founding leader, Erdoğan, elected as president by popular vote on Aug. 10, named Davutoğlu – who has worked with him since 2003 – future prime minister Aug. 21. He said the AKP’s Central Executive Board (MYK) had agreed to nominate Davutoğlu as its next leader and, by default, future premier. The decision must now be endorsed by a party vote on Aug. 27, which is unlikely to be opposed.

According to Kılıçdaroğlu, Turkey became isolated in all four corners of the world during Davutoğlu’s tenure as foreign minister.

“I called Davutoğlu ‘Turkey’s biggest incompetent [as foreign minister].’ I still argue the same. And now this is being rewarded. Turkey is facing such a picture for the first time,” Kılıçdaroğlu said, slamming both Erdoğan and Davutoğlu for being “indifferent” in their approach in rescuing the 49 Turkish nationals who have been kept as hostages by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in Iraq since early June.

“You, yourself, handed over the hostages to ISIL. You have molded ISIL into its current shape,” he added, while calling out at Erdoğan and Davutoğlu.

Bahçeli, meanwhile, vowed not to allow the two of them to turn Turkey into a “dungeon,” indicating the relatively low participation of opposition voters in the presidential election led to today’s situation.

“But there is a historical opportunity for you ahead. That is June 7, 2015,” Bahçeli said, referring to the upcoming parliamentary election and urging people to change the government by voting.