Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was believed to have charmed his international audience while he served as the foreign minister under Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s leadership from 2009 to 2014. His image was that of an impressive academic with original ideas on international affairs to which he introduced insightful analyses. But Davutoglu, since the time he was handpicked by Erdogan to occupy the post Erdogan would vacate to climb up to the presidency, has increasingly become the object of criticism, sometimes harshly personal, even contesting his intellectual credentials.

It was not long ago that he was depicted as being no more than a Turkish notable of the Arab Muslim Brotherhood network. “Zero Problems with Neighbors,” the phrase he coined to symbolize Turkey’s allegedly successful re-entry into the Middle East policy arena, is now no more than a distant reference, as Turkey’s regional posture nowadays is in shambles.

With the dominant personality of Erdogan overshadowing Davutoglu, many observers in and outside of Turkey ceased to take him seriously as his title “the prime minister” would deserve and as he would like. Yet, the way he performed in the wake of the deadliest terror attack Turkey has ever seen, in which two suicide bombers apparently belonging to the Islamic State (IS) killed around 100 people Oct. 17 in the capital, Ankara, brought Davutoglu once again under the spotlights of domestic and international politics.

But again, he failed to impress anybody. He simultaneously became an object of derision and amusement. On Oct. 14, in an attempt to draw a demarcation line between Daesh (he uses the Arabic acronym of IS following the footsteps of his boss, Erdogan) and Turkey's Justice and Development Party (AKP), he said, “There is a 360 degree difference” between the Islam of Daesh and the Islam of the AKP, of which he is the chairman.