At the press conference in Ankara, Ahmet Davutoglu's voice trembled in the meantime - but what the Turkish ex-prime minister had to say was clear: it was both a "historical responsibility and a necessity," he declared, "to build a new political movement." , He invited everyone "whose heart beats for the future of this country" to cooperate.
Davutoglu has left the governing party AKP and at the same time wants to found a new party. It is clear that the break with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is complete.
The 60-year-old Davutoglu was himself AKP chief from 2014 to 2016, but was partially disempowered after clashes with Erdogan and resigned in 2016 as Prime Minister. He had repeatedly accused his party to move away from its basic principles.
Among other things, he had criticized the cancellation of the mayoral election in the metropolis of Istanbul in March. The AKP had lost the election then. In the June re-election, which came under pressure from the head of the government, opposition candidate Ekrem Imamoglu won a second time.
Dissatisfaction with Erdogan
On Friday, Davutoglu said that the AKP leadership sees "any well-intentioned criticism and recommendation as betrayal and hostility", so there is no longer a way in the AK party of "the principles and goals we are advocating in our political life implement ".
Davutoglu held the press conference together with former ACP MEPs Selcuk Özdag, Abdullah Basci and Ayhan Sefer Üstün, who also resigned from the AKP. Their decision coincided with disintegration in the country's most powerful party. The media has been reporting for months that some figures in the AKP are dissatisfied with the course of President Erdogan.
In July, ex-Vice Prime Minister Ali Babacan had left the party he co-founded. At the time, there were ditches between the principles he believed in and the actions of the party, Babacan wrote in a letter cited by the media. Babacan also reportedly wants to start a new party. It was also about improving the reputation of the country, he wrote in July. "Human rights, freedoms, progressive democracy and jurisdiction are our indispensable principles."
What is ex-president Gül doing?
There are also rumors that ex-president Abdullah Gül could start a splinter party or join a new party. Gül is considered a party grandee, but is no longer an ACP member, according to experts and the AKP press office, since he resigned in 2007 as he was required to become president.
Erdogan has repeatedly raged against the internal adversaries: "The work of some people from the inside (the party) is difficult to swallow," he said, for example, at the end of April at a party meeting. "We will hold her to account when the time comes." For him, splinter parties could mean loss of power. ACP politicians accuse the dissident of competing only to reduce Erdogan's chances in elections.
Ahmet Davutoglu and the other three ACP members were preceded by a party ruling by Friday's press conference unanimously approved by the AKP board headed by Erdogan in early September.
