Erdogan’s former friends are the foes of today

Mahmud al-Batakoshi

The friends of yesterday are the enemies of today. This phrase sums up conditions on the Turkish political stage at present.

Former prime minister, Ahmet Davutoğlu, former finance minister, Ali Babacan, and former president, Abdullah Gül were close friends of incumbent Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The three politicians co-founded the now-ruling Justice and Development Party with Erdogan.

However, the three figures are now enemies of the Turkish president. They even consider the next presidential elections as a good chance to get rid of him.

Abdullah Gül

Gül was born in 1950. He was a close comrade of Erdogan. He co-founded the Justice and Development Party with him in 2001.

In 2007, Gül became the president of Turkey after a fierce political battle against Turkey’s secularists who had problems with Gül’s wife wearing the Islamic headgear.

Cracks started emerging within the Gül-Erdogan alliance in May 2013 when the latter was the prime minister of Turkey. Erdogan ordered Turkish police to crush street protests that erupted in Istanbul then. Police violence caused ten fatalities and multiple injuries among the protesters. Gül objected.

When he left the presidency, Gül criticized measures taken by Erdogan, who changed the political system in his country after becoming its president, to immunize his post.

Ahmet Davutoğlu

Davutoğlu was born in 1958. He is known to be the mastermind of the policies of the Justice and Development Party. He also coined the “Zero Problems” policy, which aimed at ending Turkey’s problems with other countries.

Davutoğlu objected to Erdogan’s change of the political system in Turkey. This caused him to lose the post of prime minister in 2016.

The former prime minister criticized Erdogan and the policies of his party more than one time, especially after the party lost the mayoral elections in Istanbul in March 2019.

He criticized Erdogan again when he appointed his son-in-law as the minister of finance.

Ali Babacan

Babacan was born in 1967. He is a cofounder of the Justice and Development Party and an old friend of Erdogan.

He held a number of important portfolio, including the foreign affairs portfolio and the economy portfolio. Babacan was also appointed as the chief negotiator on Turkey’s accession to the European Union.