Turkish President-elect Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Aug. 21 announced Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu as his successor. After a final, four-hour meeting of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) Central Executive Committee, Erdogan said, “Davutoglu’s determination to fight against the ‘parallel state’ has played an important role” in his selection. 

Erdogan contended that US-based Sunni cleric Fethullah Gulen’s followers had established a “parallel state” in Turkey, especially in security and judiciary bodies, after the AKP came under judicial investigation in December 2013 for allegedly taking part in a massive corruption and bribery ring. “I believe we’re going to carry out this struggle together. My being president will not disrupt this struggle [against the Gulenist establishment],” Erdogan said. 

Noting that Davutoglu’s real challenge will start after Aug. 27, when he is likely to be elected at the party’s extraordinary congress that will choose the next chairman, Erdogan said, “I may be ahead of myself, but Davutoglu is also the candidate to be the prime minister of the 62nd government of our country.”

Many in the opposition parties argue that Erdogan violated the law by attending today’s meeting. “The moment the Supreme Election Board announced [Aug. 15] that Erdogan had won the presidential election, that announcement should have been published the next day in the Official Gazette, and he should have resigned from all his duties as chairman and prime minister,” Riza Turkmen, Republican People’s Party (CHP) deputy and a former European Court of Human Rights judge, told Al-Monitor. “This is creating a chaotic scene.”