Former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of AKP governments, and now opposition Future Party’s leader Davutoğlu criticized Erdoğan’s normalisation efforts in foreign policy as “humiliating and ill-timed” stating that Ankara is belittling Türkiye by “taking foreign policy steps in pursuit of financial resources.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin imposed reconciliation with Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in order to postpone Türkiye’s energy debts, opposition leader Ahmet Davutoğlu said, describing Ankara’s foreign policy normalisation efforts as ill-timed and “humiliating,” aiming to compensate economic loss.
“The government is drifting from controlled tensions based on domestic use of foreign policy to submissive normalization. In terms of timing, the opposing parties, who see the link between the normalization efforts and search for resources to get out of economy bottleneck Türkiye is going through, are pursuing an attitude that can be regarded as belittlement of Türkiye,” Davutoğlu told YetkinReport in an exclusive interview on December 9 in Ankara.
As a founding member of Erdoğan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP), Davutoğlu was a prominent figure, especially in shaping AKP governments’ foreign policies while he was serving as Prime Minister and Foreign Minister in former cabinets.
After resigning from his party and establishing his own Future Party, he has been a critic of the ruling party and an avid critic of the “presidential government system” brought to a referendum in 2017 by the AKP and its “People’s Alliance” Nationalist Development Party (MHP).
Now a member of the six opposition parties’ alliance against President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the “People’s Alliance,” in the upcoming critical elections to be held in 2023, the Future Party Leader emphasises the “visionary” characteristics of the alliance and draws a “hopeful” picture for Türkiye in a time of turmoil.
One of the first questions that comes to mind to ask Davutoğlu is naturally his assessment of the Erdoğan government’s Syria policy since the Future Party leader was considered the architect of Ankara’s foreign policy, especially during the early years of the country’s civil war.
Davutoğlu says he “categorically” supports the normalisation efforts of Ankara but added that “processes with Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Egypt haven’t been carried out with the correct diplomatic style, method, and timing.”
He said that “normalization efforts in foreign policy” should be undertaken only when the circumstances are suitable, but he added that the current state of Türkiye’s economy and politics bears no fertile ground for such moves.
Answering my question about whether he thinks that the economic situation pushed Erdoğan into normalisation in foreign policy, Davutoğlu said, “Unfortunately, yes, it is an extremely offensive process, and the other parties see that and use that.”
He says that to ask for reconciliation with the United Arab Emirates amounts to “submission,” as the government has been accusing the country of supporting the July 15, 2016 coup attempt and there has been no diplomatic dialogue on the subject before the rapprochement began.
“Of course we should reconcile, but there are two options for that. Either they admit their error, or Türkiye admits that they were wrongly accused.”Without either of them, the process cannot be normalization; it can only be submission,” he explained.
“There are two reasons behind this submission that make our country seem like it is begging. One is to silence (mob leader) Sedat Peker, and the other is to compensate for the economic resources until the elections,” he added.
He included recent moves with Israel and Egypt into his assessment as he described normalisation efforts with Israel as “humiliation.”
“It is the same with Egypt. Erdoğan, who did not even sit at the same table with [Abdül Fattah] Sisi at the UN Secretary-General’s invitation when Türkiye’s hand was strong, seems to be chasing Sisi. It is because of the fact that the Gulf countries stipulate their financial support with a reconciliation with Sisi,” he said.
“Normalization with Egypt should be carried out through our common interests in the Eastern Mediterranean as two powerful countries in the region. Now, giving the appearance of being forced to normalise with the intention of looking cute in search of financial resources from third parties will not create a healthy normalisation ground and does not suit our country,” he added.
The Future Party leader stated that Erdoğan’s recent call to meet with Syrian President Assad is a result of such pursuit of financial support ahead of elections and this “need” results in Assad’s statements, imposing conditions for a meeting.
“Assad is unable to control even his own country completely but behaves with arrogance that thinks he can impose conditions on the President of the Türkiye,” he said, adding that this attitude stems from Russian President Putin’s imposition.
“The reason for this is very clear. Everyone sees that Putin’s demand and imposition are behind Erdoğan’s humiliating desire to meet Assad, in contrast to his previous comments. It is very clear that this one-sided desire in the normalisation process with Syria was carried out by Russia to postpone BOTAŞ’ debts until after the winter, after the elections,” he said, referring Türkiye’s National Petroleum Pipeline Corporation’s debt to Russia.
“That’s why Assad arrogantly says no to a meeting that Erdogan will use to win the election,” he added.
He pointed to United Nations Security Council Resolution 2254 on December 18, 2015, as “the most important document for normalization,” saying “it envisages the regime and the opposition forming a joint transitional government” in Syria.
He said that Erdoğan’s response should have pointed to the UN resolution, “instead of making such humiliating and one-sided surrendering statements.”
“Moreover, only 30-40 percent of Syrian territory is under Assad’s control. There is almost no regime-controlled region on the Türkiye-Syria border. The agreement is made with an authority that can fulfil its promise to you. In addition, those living under the control of Türkiye and the Syrian National Army, especially in Idlib, who will be worried that their own regions will be left to the regime during the normalisation process with Assad, if a normalisation is not well-framed, is also at a high risk of creating new waves of immigration to our country,” he added.
As a part of the six opposition parties’ collaboration for the upcoming elections at the “Table of the Six,” Davutoğlu praised the parties’ efforts as “historic,” emphasizing on their future moves.
“We are establishing a governance system, not an administrative system. It is based on principles, not individuals,” he said, stating that the Table of Six leaders of the opposition will continue its meetings this week and are expected to enclose two more documents before the end of the year.
“One will be the Roadmap for the Transition to a Strengthened Parliamentary System, and the other will be the Joint Policies Document, which will be a governmental program” Davutoğlu said, stating that the joint working group of the six parties has publicised documents that they agreed upon since they first announced their “collaboration” in February this year.
After their “Strengthened Parliamentary System Model” announcement in February, the table has issued their agreed texts on “Basic Principles and Goals”, “Election Security Collaboration,” “Economic Institutions Reform,” and, lastly, on November 28, the 84-article “Constitutional Amendment Agreement.”
Future Leader praises the six parties’ efforts to collaborate on a shared vision, saying that “the representatives of the country’s all fundamental branches of political culture coming together around a table for a shared vision of the future is a historical development in itself.”
“It should not be regarded as a reactive collaboration, it is not conjunctural or ephemeral,” he said, defining the partnership as “an important infrastructure that will enable our cooperation to turn into an alliance of vision”.
“On the one hand, there are representatives of authoritarian conservatism (Erdoğan), authoritarian nationalism (MHP leader Devlet Bahçeli), anti-religious authoritarian secularism (Homeland Party leader Doğu Perinçek), who have come together around common interests without declaring any common texts. On the other hand, there are libertarian liberals who have come together with joint political values and political system declaration. There are representatives of libertarian conservatism, libertarian nationalism and libertarian secularism, so our union is not a cyclical and temporary cooperation process that is tried to be created by poll manipulations,” he said.
One of the criticisms directed at the opposition alliance was their belated announcement of their presidential candidate to run against President Erdoğan in the upcoming elections.
“I do not think these criticisms are in point. What is important here is that we have control over time. We have already announced in February that we will announce our candidate once the government announces the election date. Hence there is no delay on our part,” he said.
He said that the ruling alliance’s emphasis on the candidacy aims to disturb the balance within the table of six adding that “what they expect that there will be discussions over candidacy and the table will be broken.”
“They can wait,” he said “we are determined to act with prudence as 6 leaders,” to ensure that the transition roadmap is completed so the new system “would not produce another one-man”
“We cannot leave the management of the transition process in the hands of one person,” says Davutoğlu, emphasising that with all these collaborations and agreements, the table aims to ensure that there will not be a “Second Erdoğan” in the event of their victory in the presidential and parliamentary elections.
“And the public should see it as a preliminary step for a larger social contract, not a process of nominating a candidate,” he said.
“This is not a tutelage. No one should expect our presidential candidate to use the same powers as Erdoğan does,” he said, adding, “The president will not act like a seventh party. He will be the embodiment of our political will and our common mind that we have formed together.”
Answering my question concerning recent public attacks on retail market chains after the AKP government pointed out their pricing policy as one of the leading factors of soaring inflation, Davutoğlu said that the officials are using the markets as a scapegoat for the state of the economy.
“The high cost of living cannot be linked to retail market chains. When there is high inflation, and the Central Bank’s reserves are draining away, there is no trust in institutions, and you cannot hold the markets solely responsible,” he said.
He said that the public outrage and the attacks are a result of the nourishment of the “violence culture,” criticising the MHP leader’s statements against the markets, which he said fueled the attacks.
“This is a terrorist act against economic life, there is no place for this in a liberal economy,” he added.
“Conservative segments, who remain silent in the face of all kinds of corruption and wrongdoing for fear of losing their gains, should learn serious lessons from these developments,” he said.
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