Turkey's Davutoglu Under Fire For Failed Mideast Policies
Pressure is mounting on Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu for Turkey’s failed Middle East policies, including calls from a leading opposition parliamentarian for his dismissal, writes Tulin Daloglu.
ANKARA — Kemal Kilicdaroglu, the chief opposition-party leader, has called for the resignation of Ahmet Davutoglu, Turkey’s foreign minister and a member of the Justice and Development Party (AKP), over the country’s failed Middle East policies. At the weekly meeting of his own party (the Republican People's Party) on Tuesday, Nov. 27 at the Turkish parliament, Kilicdaroglu called on Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan to “dismiss him from his duty; bring any [AKP] deputy in his place. You will see that he will do a better job than Davutoglu.”
Here in Ankara, it is not only the opposition party that is critical of Davutoglu. There are also dissident voices within the AKP, a party that was initially formed as a sort of a social coalition to tamp down the fears regarding the Islamist background of its founding members. Not all are in alignment with the Erdogan-Davutoglu team, but none want to break with party discipline at this time and show disloyalty to the prime minister.
Nonetheless, many supporters of both the AKP and the opposition are concerned about the risks Turkey is taking over its Syria policy, which has weakened relations between Turkey and Iran and produced tense relations between Turkey and Iraq.
Instead of “zero problems with neighbors,” as the policy was known just two years ago, Turkey now has “problems with neighbors.”
