After unsuccessful spell in opposition, Davutoğlu says ‘never broke away’ from AKP base
Turkish opposition Future Party leader and former PM Ahmet Davutoğlu has stated that he had “never broken away” from the ruling AKP voters. After resigning from the AKP, he founded his opposition party in 2019, and made a pre-election alliance with the CHP.
Duvar English
Turkish opposition Future (Gelecek) Party leader Ahmet Davutoğlu on Dec. 19 stated that he had “never broken away” from the base of his former party, the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP).
Speaking during a live KRT TV broadcast, Davutoğlu said, “I am someone who has tried to live my life with principles. No one will be able to say that this man lived without principles. I am not the founder of the AKP. But then I was involved in a very intense struggle for 7.5 years, I never left Mr. Erdoğan's side.”
“I still represent the spirit of the AKP. If they return to those principles, we will support every law they bring in Parliament, as long as they return to those principles,” Davutoğlu said.
“I have never broken away from the AKP masses and I will never do so. The history of those masses does not start with the AKP. When I say that I am with the AKP ‘in spirit,’ I mean that the AKP has abandoned those principles, but I have not,” he added.
After the ouster of Bashar al-Assad in Syria, Davutoğlu similarly said that he had “never broken away from the AKP in spirit,” as he was one of the architects of the Turkish government's Syria policy when the civil war broke out.
"Not as a former prime minister, but as an ordinary as a citizen, if President, Foreign Minister, Chief of Staff or any other institution consults me, I will give my opinion," he added in the KRT TV broadcast.
Before founding the Future Party in 2019, Davutoğlu was a member of the AKP. He served as the Foreign Minister between 2009 and 2014 and later became Prime Minister of Turkey between 2014 and 2016 under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's presidency. He resigned from office in May 2016.
The Future Party was part of the opposition coalition “Table of Six,” which is also referred to as the Nation Alliance, going into the May 2023 general elections. The party gained 10 seats in the parliament by entering the election under the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) list.
Therefore, the party could not test itself in a general election, but it garnered around 0.1% of the votes in the 2024 local elections.