Former Turkish Premier Ahmet Davutoglu announced his new political party on Friday in a challenge to President Recep Erdogan and an increasingly divided ruling AKP.
It is named Gelecek Partisi (Future Party), Davutoglu said in Ankara, three months after resigning from the Justice and Development Party (AKP).
“Today, we establish our party by saying: The future belongs to our people, the future belongs to Turkey,” he said.
Davutoglu, 60, was a long-time ally of Erdogan, and his resignation in September was a blow to both the president and the AKP.
He served as foreign minister from 2009-14 and then prime minister until 2016, was hand-picked by Erdogan to become AKP leader in 2014, and led the party to victory in general elections in 2015.
But they fell out in 2016 and Davutoglu was forced out of the prime minister’s job amidst Erdogan’s push for a constitutional referendum to create an all-powerful executive presidency.
The 2017 referendum extended presidential powers, which was cemented after elections the following year and ushered in the current period of “one-man rule,” as described by Erdogan’s opponents.
“In an era that leans towards authoritarian and populist trends in the world, we must build a country where honourable people walk with their heads held high, with their own free will,” Davutoglu said.
While steadily sidelined within the party, Davutoglu remained in the AKP ranks and stayed silent as the government undermined rule of law, human rights and jailed its critics, including journalists.
In sweeping announcements outlining the party’s manifesto, Davutoglu promised to safeguard freedom of speech and religion, introduce a new system of governance, judicial reforms and constitution, as well as bolster the crisis-hit economy.
A long-simmering rebellion within the AKP was fuelled by its losses in nationwide local elections in March, especially in economic hubs and urban centres.
In rare and harsh criticism in April, Davutoglu blamed the AKP’s alliance with ultranationalists for the poll setback.
When the party took him and other dissenting members to task and called for their expulsion, he decided to quit in September.
“Our people know that those who do politics with fears and taboos can’t carry our country to better tomorrows,” he said, berating Erdogan and the AKP – without naming them – for living in the past.
Also waiting in the wings to launch his own party by year-end is Ali Babacan, 52, an AKP founding member who quit the party in July citing differences in their values.
While it remains to be seen how many voters and AKP members the new parties can eventually lure from Erdogan’s party, the 65-year-old president remains popular and firmly in power for the next three years.
Yet, Erdogan’s repeated attacks on his former allies could backfire at the ballot box.
Turkey’s next general elections are scheduled for 2023, which also marks the centenary of the founding of the modern republic.
