Turkish Prime Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, is set to resign after talks failed with the country’s authoritarian President Tayyip Erdogan over his independence as elected Prime Minister of the country. Mr. Erdogan, who founded the ruling AK party, handpicked Mr. Davutoglu as his successor as Prime Minister, while he moved on to become president. Though Presidential role is more ceremonious in Turkey, he has amassed more power after grabbing the position and looks for yet more through constitutional changes.
One political analysts commented that Erdogan wants to have powers of both positions.
Davutoglu returned from trips to Europe and Middle East, only to find that he has been stripped off some of his powers. He has been at odds with the President over some sensitive issues like pre-trial detention of Academics and Journalists, opening talks with Kurdish separatists, appointment of independent central banker and relationship with EU.
Ahmet has been in talks with European leaders for a refugee deal, which would have given Turkey the opportunity of visa-free travel in Europe, but Erdogan viewed that as Ahmet’s attempt to create his own power-base.
As of now, Prime Minister is expected to resign, since he doesn’t have enough support within the party to challenge Erdogan’s. And he could be replaced by Binali Yildirim, the transport minister; Berat Albayrak, the energy minister and son-in-law of the president; and Bekir Bozdag, the justice minister. All of them are loyal to the president.
However there are little chance that the transition will be smooth, there could be protests across the country over Erdogan’s hunger for power.
Since the news broke, Lira has declined more than 5% against Dollar, trading at 2.95 per Dollar.