The resignation of Ali Babacan, a respected former economy minister, from Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has unleashed a fresh wave of excited speculation about the prospects that he might form and lead a rival center-right party.

In a statement explaining why he quit the party he co-founded in 2001, Babacan cited “deep differences” between his personal principles, values and ideas and those manifested in the AKP's current trajectory. “Given Turkey’s current circumstances,” Babacan said, “Turkey is in need of a brand new vision for the future. Embarking on a new effort for Turkey’s present and future has become inevitable. [Myself] and many of my friends feel a great and historic responsibility toward such an effort.”

Babacan’s long-anticipated defection came only days after Erdogan fired Turkey’s central bank governor, Murat Cetinkaya, likely for disobeying his orders to reduce interest rates. The move was seen as further evidence that the Istanbul municipal rerun has done little to temper the president’s obduracy or prompt him to draw the requisite lessons from the AKP’s bruising defeat.

Babacan and like-minded liberals apparently seized on the result as an opportune moment to start forging their new party. Rumbles of discontent have been rippling through the AKP over Erdogan’s imperious and notoriously rude treatment of fellow party members. This was on full display when Erdogan dismissed the AKP’s putative rival as “an empty sack that will instantly crumple.”