Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is under putschist military “tutelage’’ and will soon be “eliminated’’ by the faction that controls him, opposition Future Party leader Ahmet Davutoğlu said on Sunday.
The Turkish president is also held back by his junior coalition partner and leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bahçeli, the former prime minister and Erdoğan ally told Turkey’s Karar TV.
“Erdoğan is currently under the tutelage of the remnants of the Feb. 28 (period,’’ Davutoğlu said, referring to the post-modern coup of 1997, which was said to have been motivated by the secular military’s fear of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) predecessor Welfare (Refah) Party leader Necemettin Erbakan’s Islamist agenda.
“I am issuing a warning. Mr. Erdoğan will soon be eliminated. Mr. Erdoğan is at a crossroads, it will be very difficult for him to win the elections with the People’s Alliance’’ he added, referring to the AKP-MHP ruling People’s Alliance.
The Future Party leader also criticised Erdoğan for failing to wish well for a Future Party official, who was injured in a mob attack earlier this week.
Future Party deputy chairman Selcuk Özdağ suffered a bloody attack by an armed gang in front of his house in Ankara on Friday. Two people on Sunday were detained in relation to the attack, which is believed to have been carried out by a mob linked to the far-right MHP.
Erdoğan is not taking the attack seriously, Davutoğu said, as he failed to “wish the lawmaker a speedy recovering or vow to find the perpetrators.’’
The Future Party leader also accused the ruling alliance of “attempting to prevent the progress of the Future Party,’’ and Erdoğan of conducting conjectural politics not based on principles.
Davutoğlu was the prime minister and chairman of the ruling AKP from 2014 to 2016 until he fell out with Erdoğan and was forced out. He resigned from the party in Sept. 2019 before staring the AKP rival Future Party in December of the same year.
Source: Ahval
