AIRLINK 63.78 Increased By ▲ 1.58 (2.54%)
BOP 6.14 Decreased By ▼ -0.09 (-1.44%)
CNERGY 4.87 Decreased By ▼ -0.12 (-2.4%)
DFML 14.94 Increased By ▲ 0.04 (0.27%)
DGKC 66.99 Decreased By ▼ -2.00 (-2.9%)
FCCL 17.39 Decreased By ▼ -0.34 (-1.92%)
FFBL 24.93 Increased By ▲ 0.33 (1.34%)
FFL 9.18 Decreased By ▼ -0.03 (-0.33%)
GGL 10.23 Increased By ▲ 0.33 (3.33%)
HBL 108.24 Decreased By ▼ -0.26 (-0.24%)
HUBC 116.75 Increased By ▲ 0.25 (0.21%)
HUMNL 6.63 Decreased By ▼ -0.07 (-1.04%)
KEL 4.41 Decreased By ▼ -0.05 (-1.12%)
KOSM 4.65 Decreased By ▼ -0.07 (-1.48%)
MLCF 35.87 Decreased By ▼ -1.03 (-2.79%)
OGDC 123.07 Decreased By ▼ -0.23 (-0.19%)
PAEL 22.94 Increased By ▲ 0.50 (2.23%)
PIAA 23.89 Increased By ▲ 1.67 (7.52%)
PIBTL 5.77 Increased By ▲ 0.02 (0.35%)
PPL 111.09 Increased By ▲ 0.19 (0.17%)
PRL 27.60 Increased By ▲ 0.03 (0.11%)
PTC 15.25 Increased By ▲ 1.06 (7.47%)
SEARL 53.02 Decreased By ▼ -0.23 (-0.43%)
SNGP 63.34 Decreased By ▼ -0.41 (-0.64%)
SSGC 10.83 Decreased By ▼ -0.17 (-1.55%)
TELE 9.23 Increased By ▲ 0.28 (3.13%)
TPLP 10.97 Increased By ▲ 0.24 (2.24%)
TRG 71.43 Increased By ▲ 1.13 (1.61%)
UNITY 25.00 Increased By ▲ 0.80 (3.31%)
WTL 1.38 Increased By ▲ 0.02 (1.47%)
BR100 6,751 Increased By 52.9 (0.79%)
BR30 22,646 Increased By 28.2 (0.12%)
KSE100 65,503 Increased By 612.1 (0.94%)
KSE30 21,721 Increased By 185.1 (0.86%)
World

Former Turkish PM Davutoglu sharply criticises Erdogan's AK Party

ANKARA: A former prime minister and close ally of President Tayyip Erdogan strongly criticised the ruling AK Party o
Published April 22, 2019

ANKARA: A former prime minister and close ally of President Tayyip Erdogan strongly criticised the ruling AK Party on Monday, blaming policy changes and an alliance with nationalists for its poor performance in Turkey's local elections last month.

In his first major public challenge to Erdogan since leaving office three years ago, Ahmet Davutoglu, himself an AKP member, slammed the party's economic policies, media restrictions and the damage he said it had done to the separation of powers and to institutions.

Davutoglu, a high profile figure in the party, served as prime minister between 2014 and 2016 before falling out with Erdogan.

The AKP lost control of the capital Ankara and Turkey's largest city Istanbul in the elections on March 31.

"The election results show that alliance politics have caused harm to our party, both in terms of voter levels and the party's identity," Davutoglu said in a 15-page statement.

The AKP and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) formed an alliance before presidential and parliamentary elections in June last year in which Erdogan won the executive presidency but saw the level of support for his party fall.

There were no signs of a lira reaction to Davutoglu's statement. The currency had weakened in early trade and stood at 5.8334 against the dollar, from a close of 5.8170 on Friday.

In recent years there has been repeated media speculation that prominent AKP politicians such as Davutoglu might break away to establish a new political party, but no such development has materialised and Davutoglu's statement did not refer to any prospect of a new party.

Instead, it stressed the need for reform within. "I call on our party's executives and relevant bodies to assess all these subjects and our future vision sensibly and with cool heads," Davutoglu said.

Copyright Reuters, 2019

Comments

Comments are closed.