There is an incredible campaign in Turkey to block the Justice and Development Party (AK Party) at all costs, thus its adversaries are doing their utmost to sow the seeds of sedition in the ruling party with the aim of stalling it in the upcoming parliamentary elections. To this end, they are fabricating all kinds of reports that will create an atmosphere of discord in AK Party ranks.
Their latest ploy is to claim that Abdullah Gül will declare his candidacy for a parliamentary seat on the AK Party ticket. Even the claim itself is ridiculous, and yet the mainstream press has been using the issue over and over again simply to hurt the AK Party. Gül is a leading founding member of the party. He was the first prime minister of an AK Party government. He has served as foreign minister and then his own AK Party deputies voted to elect him president when in the past the head of state was elected by Parliament. So Gül has served with success in all the top posts of government with the AK Party. Now to think that he will become a simple deputy for the AK Party and sit in a corner in Parliament is simply absurd.
However, those spreading these rumors are not really after the truth. All they want is to create chaos because their real aim is to create the image that Gül is "coming back" into active AK Party politics to unseat Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. That is a fantasy.
They are spreading rumors that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is unhappy with Davutoğlu and the latest Hakan Fidan fiasco has added to his dismay. It is true that Davutoğlu wanted to bolster the position of the seat of foreign minister with a strong personality and felt that intelligence chief Hakan Fidan was an ideal candidate. Thus Fidan resigned as intelligence boss and opted to enter politics and become an AK Party deputy, despite clear objections by Erdoğan. So in the end, both Davutoğlu and Fidan bowed to Erdoğan and Fidan gave up his political ambitions and went back to his intelligence post. At the end of the day, Davutoğlu realized that Erdoğan is the supreme leader of the AK Party political movement and has the last say. But this does not mean Erdoğan decided to write off Davutoğlu and replace him with Gül.
Davutoğlu will remain in his post both as chairman of the AK Party and prime minister, and lead his party in the polls. Neither Erdoğan nor anyone else will wish to change the party boss on the eve of these elections.Gül himself has openly denied he has any intention of becoming a deputy. He says he will be involved in politics, voicing his opinions and showing guidance in various platforms.
Yet those who want to sow the seeds of discord in the AK Party also try to create the image that Gül has now become an adversary and will join forces with the opposition against his party, even going as far as to claim he will lead a new party. If Gül ever returns to the active political scene, of course, it will be with the AK Party and that means he will be chairman when and if necessary.
