‘Too early to speak of presidency’

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

It would be natural for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to become president given his past success, but it is premature to discuss the issue with no polls until 2014, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç has said.

“It is too early, let’s wait for 2014. I haven’t asked him about the [matter], and he has not said anything to me. He may decide [to stand for president], but right now, this is not a subject being debated,” Arınç said April 5 in a television interview, potentially reopening an oft-divisive debate.

“If circumstances allow for such a successful person to become president, if that is what he wants, then I would hope that it happens,” he said.Arınç said presidential elections could not be held this year even if the Constitutional Court scraps a law that fixed President Abdullah Gül’s term at seven years and effectively scheduled the election for his successor for 2014. If Gül’s term had been set at five years the elections would have been scheduled for August 2012.