Zeitgeist Turkey | Episode 12: Cansu Çamlıbel hosts Future Party leader Ahmet Davutoğlu

Editor: Azra Ceylan

In this week’s episode, Duvar English’s editor-in-chief Cansu Çamlıbel hosts Future Party leader Ahmet Davutoğlu to discuss the vision of his new political party. The interview also provides candid answers from Davutoğlu, who served as Turkey's foreign minister from 2009 to 2014 and as prime minister from 2014 to 2016 in Erdoğan governments, on some crucial episodes of the Turkish foreign policy in last decade when he was in a position to influence policy in Ankara.

Ahmet Davutoğlu had to quit his post over disagreements he had with Erdoğan in 2016, which finally resulted in his resignation from party membership in 2019. Davutoğlu, established a breakaway political party on December 12 last year.

Davutoğlu told Cansu Çamlıbel that President Erdoğan today is the person who represents the anti-democratic trends in Turkish politics.

“Our promise is to establish a new democratic system based on transparency. We will always be defending transparency, accountability and the rule of law. Any limitation against freedom of thought will be removed, the guarantees will be given to academicians, intellectuals, journalists so that they can exercise intellectual activities without any limitation or fear or constraint,” he said.

When reminded of the crisis between Ankara and Moscow in November 2015 over the Russian fighter jet which was shot down by Turkish Air Force, Davutoğlu said that such a deep crisis would have been avoided if he was listened to and the Presidential Office has not publicized the incident before talking to President Putin.

Davutoğlu also said that he does not approve the current Syria policy of the Erdoğan government because of the lack of consistency.