On the one hand he leads an AK Party with large swathes of membership fiercely loyal to his predecessor. ![]() The only question is whether he will take it. This election presents his successor with an opportunity to demonstrate that he is, in the words of Hurriyet Daily News editor Murat Yetkin, “Turkey’s prime minister and not its deputy president”. ![]() Not an easy taskīut that doesn’t mean Recep Tayyip Erdoğan should always be the de facto leader of Turkey’s main centre-right party. He handpicked his successor as AK Party leader, made political advisors out of the most senior AK Party MPs who were leaving parliament at the election and, most prominently of all, held rallies around the country during the campaign – 46 of them, by our count. There is of course no point pretending that Mr Erdoğan kept that impartiality – he didn’t. Turkey’s president formally relinquished all ties to the party when he was elected to the politically neutral top job last year. Remember – on not one piece of paper anywhere does it say the AK Party belongs to Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. ![]() ![]() Is Davutoğlu Turkey’s prime minister or vice president?
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |