Former PM Davutoğlu says Erdoğan 'acting together with dark actors of 90s'
Future Party leader Ahmet Davutoğlu, who was once President Erdoğan's closest ally but later broke away from the ruling AKP, has said that the president has been “acting together with the dark actors of the 1990s.” He also said that the opposition bloc had not yet agreed on their presidential candidate for the upcoming 2023 elections.
Duvar English
Future Party leader and former prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been “acting together with the dark actors of the 1990s.”
Davutoğlu made the comments during an interview with journalists Taha Akyol and Elif Çakır on KARAR TV. Davutoğlu said that if the opposition coalition, which his Future Party is a part of, fails to nominate a joint candidate to run against Erdoğan, it would damage the opposition's perception in the eyes of the public.
“But we have put a lot of effort for this six-party table [of opposition coalition], and if a joint candidate does not come out, we would not dissolve. I would not want it to dissolve either.”
He said that the upcoming steps of the opposition coalition in the next six-seven months will be very important and the country will “take a breath” should they become successful. “If we can find a way of exit, Turkey will take a breath. But if we succumb to our egos, it would not happen. In this path, I will talk with everyone I trust,” he said.
Davutoğlu also commented on main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu's wish to run as the opposition bloc's candidate for president in the upcoming 2023 general elections, saying that Kılıçdaroğlu had not met yet such a request to them.
“Kılıçdaroğlu has not yet said anything to us about becoming the presidential candidate; it was not talked. If you listen to our speeches, you would see that all of us trust our own parties' assertions. It is a different thing to talk in an assertive way and to be a presidential candidate. Messages are also coming to me about [putting forward] candidacy. Everything would be talked about when the day comes,” he said.
“Before the presidential candidacy, we will talk about the transformation process and how the country will be run,” referring to the opposition's vow that they will abolish the current executive presidential system and bring a “strengthened” parliamentary system if they assume power in the 2023 elections.
Davutoğlu said that Turkey will no longer be run under a one-man rule with the new system. “When these issues are settled, then that name [presidential candidate] would be determined; in this system, that person will also be at ease. Because they [new president] will also be presided over. That person needs to accept that they will not be the 'one-man.' Our work [with opposition parties] is not about one of the chairs assuming a position. This is not about post. Five more years would not pass with Erdoğan who has been acting together with the dark actors of the 1990s in this country.”