ANKARA: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, accused of authoritarian rule at demonstrations in June, has taken a step towards what he hopes will be a stronger executive presidency after two senior politicians publicly backed him for the post.
With less than a year to the vote, speculation has been mounting over what role Erdogan and Abdullah Gul, who occupies the current largely figurehead presidential post, will play in Turkey’s first popular presidential election in 2014.
The two were founding members of the ruling AK Party in 2001 and longtime allies. Their relations have appeared at times strained over the last year, not least over a police crackdown on anti-government demonstrations this Summer.
“If our prime minister wants to run, then we will say with no hesitation, ‘Our friend Tayyip Erdogan is our candidate’, the matter will be finished,” Bulent Arinc, a deputy prime minister and another AKP co-founder, told Turkey’s Aksiyon magazine.
“If the prime minister wishes this, then it is also natural for it to happen. I don’t think Abdullah Gul would feel differently towards such a wish,” Arinc said.
Erdogan, who has dominated Turkish politics for a decade, cannot run again as prime minister in 2015 according to AKP rules, and had been long expected to stand for a newly-created executive presidency, although his plans to establish such an enhanced role have stalled.
Gul, who has emerged as a more popular presidential candidate in opinion polls, is allowed to run for a second term, though he has not publicly expressed any intention to do so. Huseyin Celik, deputy chairman and spokesman for the AKP, said it was in the country’s best interests for Erdogan to become president next year and sought to play down any rift.
“The friendship between our prime minister and our president runs very deep. It is a friendship that has passed many tests. When our prime minister decides to become a candidate, I don’t think Mr. Gul will say, ‘I’ll run too’,” Celik told the Kral FM radio station. Reuters
