Gül-Erdoğan split becomes more visible with latest exchange

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (L) and former President Abdullah Gül, center, stand by the flag-draped coffin of Süleyman Demirel, long-serving Turkish politician, at the Kocatepe Mosque for funeral prayers in Ankara, Turkey, Friday, June 19, 2015. (Photo: AP)

July 12, 2015, Sunday/ 18:22:27/ ALİ ASLAN KILIÇ / ANKARA

An iftar attended by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his predecessor, Abdullah Gül, both founders of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and longtime political allies, in İstanbul on Saturday evening saw a rare exchange of both direct and veiled criticisms and messages between Gül and Erdoğan, making the crack within the AK Party's ranks more visible and wider.

It was first Gül who took to the lectern to speak at the event in which he openly called for a revision of Turkey's foreign policy concerning the Middle East and the Arab world in order to be a source of inspiration for the countries of these regions again.

“It is a pity that Islamic countries consume themselves while the Palestinian issue remains unsolved in the Middle East. In this regard, Turkey should help these countries. In order to do this, undoubtedly we should improve our relations with all,” Gül, who is also a former foreign minister, said.

Stating that Turkey should improve its relations with countries including Libya, Egypt, Yemen and all the Gulf countries and be an inspiration for them as it was in the past, Gül said this depends on a revised foreign policy. “To be honest, I think it would be useful to revise our policies with regards to the Middle East and the Arab world with a more realistic approach,” Gül said during his speech.

President Erdoğan, who served as prime minister for 12 years until his election to the presidency last August, had been the main force driving Turkish foreign policy, often saying things that are not necessarily in line with the policies of the Foreign Ministry.

Interim Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu is considered the architect of Turkey's foreign policy. When he was serving as foreign minister, he invented the “zero problems with neighbors” policy, which turned into a “zero neighbors” policy for Turkey in the end, after its relationship with neighbors near and far deteriorated one by one.

Nurettin Aktaş, one of the founding members of the AK Party, told Today's Zaman there is nothing offensive in Gül's remarks concerning Turkey's foreign policy. “There is almost no country in the huge Islamic world that has not been hit by conflicts. As the most important country in the region, Turkey has become isolated and is wasting its energy on ‘parallel state' scenarios. … Mr. Gül's remarks are not a personal criticism. He says the fire in our neighbors will burn us as well,” Aktaş said.
The “parallel state” or structure is a phrase coined by Erdoğan to refer to the faith-based Gülen movement, also known as the Hizmet movement, following the eruption of a graft scandal in 2013 that implicated Erdoğan's inner circle.

However, Aktaş, a former AK Party deputy, said Gül should have made his views known when he was president and prevented the bad course of developments in Turkish foreign policy.

Gül is criticized by many for failing to speak up when he was president against the unlawful and anti-democratic practices pressed ahead by Erdoğan and his AK Party government.

In his speech on Saturday night, although Gül praised the developments in Turkey's democracy and economy over the past decade, he said there is much more to be done. He added that although the national income per capita in Turkey is $10,000, it is over $30,000 in Greece, which is currently in a financial crisis, a situation which he said shows there is much more that needs to be done.

The speech delivered by President Erdoğan at the iftar dinner following Gül was filled with some messages apparently aimed for Gül, who left active politics and did not return to the AK Party ranks after his tenure ended as president.

In his speech, Erdoğan said during his 40-year-long political career, he has not tired of serving the nation, has always acted in line with the expectations of the people and has not done anything to shake their confidence. “However,” he added, “there were certainly some who betrayed, who were overwhelmed by their ambitions, who were afraid, who became victims of their egos and who fell short of breath. We left them in their place and continued our way.”

Erdoğan's remarks were interpreted as a veiled message to Gül because it was Erdoğan himself who prevented Gül's return to the AK Party. After he was elected president, Erdoğan continued at the helm of the AK Party for some time and called a general party congress to elect Davutoğlu as the party's new leader. Erdoğan's move to determine the new party leader before leaving the AK Party -- given that a president has to remain impartial according to the Constitution -- was interpreted at the time as a maneuver to prevent Gül from returning to the AK Party as its new leader.

In his speech, Erdoğan also said his political allies “are not people who came together for personal interests or by coincidence.”

Aktaş said it is unacceptable for Erdoğan to insult Gül, his political ally for many years, in such a manner.

“Until a short time ago, Erdoğan was referring to Gül as ‘my brother Abdullah.' Now, he keeps him out of the party because Gül thinks differently. Then, he talks about people who ‘were left outside' in an insulting way at a meeting that is also attended by Gül. It is impossible to talk about any brotherhood here. It was Erdoğan's [former] friends who were with him in his fight against the military tutelage and against those who were insulting him. Erdoğan has gotten rid of all of those friends now. And he is talking about them in pejorative terms today,” said Aktaş.

Erdoğan also said those who see serving the nation as a means of receiving personal benefits and winning positions are like dust on a leaf and just like their presence, their absence doesn't draw anyone's attention and no one remembers them in their absence. He was again apparently making a reference to Gül.

In an open response to Gül's comparison of Turkey and Greece with regards to their national income per capita, Erdoğan said although he took over the government with a debt of $23.5 billion with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 2002, this amount was fully repaid and Turkey has become a country that is able to hand out loans to the IMF. “These things do not happen by saying empty words and making empty references,” Erdoğan said.

Former senior AK Party official Dengir Mir Mehmet Fırat, who is currently in Parliament from the ranks of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), said it is not the style of Gül to tell Erdoğan's mistakes to his face and the fact that it has happened now demonstrates that the crack in the party can no longer be kept secret.

Making a comparison between the speeches of Erdoğan and Gül, Fırat said: “While there are concerns about the country, morality and logic in Gül's speech, there is arrogance and pride in Erdoğan's speech. … Erdoğan left all his former companions behind. The most concrete example is him preventing Gül from returning to the party.”

According to Özer Sencar, the head of the Ankara-based MetroPOLL polling company, the most important thing to take away from the Gül-Erdoğan exchange is that Gül has changed his stance toward Erdoğan.

“Gül was known not to voice his criticism of Erdoğan and his policies in public. He knows better than anyone else that Erdoğan, who has no tolerance for criticism, would give a harsh response to his remarks on the issues he raised concerning the developments in Turkish foreign policy and the Middle East. Gül's speech signals that he will use a more critical language [against Erdoğan] from now on,” he commented.

Sencar also said the years-long tension between Gül and Erdoğan has come to the surface today and if Gül continues with his criticism in public, the tension could rise even further.

Following the June 7 general election in which the AK Party failed to win the minimum number of seats to continue its single-party rule, rumors have begun to circulate that Gül might return to the AK Party as its leader. In addition, a political memoir written by Gül's former advisor that criticized Erdoğan also made Gül a target of Erdoğan's fervent supporters within the pro-government media and the AK Party government.

According to Professor Enis Öksüz, a former state minister who has known Gül since his university years, there is no longer a possibility of Gül and Erdoğan reconciling and Gül's return to the AK Party is very unlikely because Erdoğan is seeking a way to turn the political climate in his favor without Gül.

Yaşar Yakış, one of the founders of the AK Party and its first foreign minister, said Gül is a politician who has served in top state posts and his return to politics could only be for the benefit of the country and not for his personal interest. “The important thing for Gül is his country and party not being ruined,” Yakış said.

Another AK Party founder Ertuğrul Yalçınbayır said if Erdoğan had been right in his remarks about not doing anything that has shaken the confidence of the people, the AK Party would have received 52 percent of the vote in the June 7 general election, similar to 10 months ago when Erdoğan was elected president, and not 41 percent.

He said the public reacted against Erdoğan being at the center of the election campaign during the June election although he is supposed to remain impartial.

Keywords: AK Party , Recep Tayyip Erdoğan , Abdullah Gül