"The regulations and programs of the Justice and Development Party (AKP) have been formulated in such a way as to avoid the danger of turning democracy into a dictatorship of one man with all the other threats that are associated with that. Meanwhile, we are now face to face with this exact danger. It is very, very real.”
The former Secretary General further said, “The president should not interfere in the internal affairs of the party; he is obliged to be loyal to this oath and his promises. In the world there are many examples of how chaos threatens to spread if the Head of State trails off from these principles and intervenes in the internal affairs of the party or the country's neighbors.
He stressed that the main duty of the head is to establish order and maintain stability in the country, and not to create conditions that threaten to plunge the country into chaos.
“The party leaders, on their part, need to resist attempts to interfere in the internal party affairs. Meanwhile, Davutoglu did not take any steps to protect the party from this outside influence. How can the Prime Minister, faced with such a problem, declare his resignation? This step by Davutoglu should be viewed as capitulation and as a final departure from democratic principles in Turkey.”
Yalçınbayır noted that all of this is the result of a distorted interpretation of democracy by the leadership of the country. According to the former secretary, Davutoglu’s decision to leave is a mistake.
Meanwhile political scientist at the University of Sabanci, Fuat Keyman, also joined Sputnik to give his comment regarding the unravelling situation in Turkey.
“In my view, May 5 (the day Davutoglu announced that he would not run for the post of chairman of the ruling AKP) should be considered as the date of the actual structural transition of Turkey to the presidential system.”
“The prime minister and the chairman of the AKP will be somewhere midway between the Council of Ministers and the president, without having the actual independence in decision-making.”
Keyman further said, “Turkey will be managed by the Council of Ministers, whose main task will be to establish a balance in the relationship between a weak prime minister and a strong president.”
Talking about Davutoglu's resignation from the point of view of world politics, the analyst said that it has become a kind of a message to the world capitals — Washington, Brussels, Berlin and London.
“The basic premise is that in the system of relations between Turkey and other countries, the decisive role will now be played not by the two centers of power but one — the president. From now on, the players on the international political arena in addressing all relevant issues affecting Turkey, from immigration to fighting the crisis in the Middle East, will interact only with the Turkish president.”
“The new prime minister will not have the weight and position in the international arena, which Davutoglu had. Accordingly, Ankara's relations with global players in the international political arena will now line up with these new realities,” concluded the analyst.
