Turkey's former President Abdullah Gül said in a Saturday press conference he will not be a candidate in the upcoming presidential election.

Gül said that Temel Karamollaoğlu, leader of the Felicity Party (SP) suggested him as a presidential candidate in the election, but said he rejected the offer because a strong consensus wasn't reached.

"I told him that I would take the necessary steps if a very strong consensus was reached, but that wasn't the case", Gül said in the press conference.

Amid rumors, politicians of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) had criticized a likely candidacy of Abdullah Gül running for presidential office, saying the move would be regarded as a betrayal of his political past.

Turkey's opposition parties, which consist of far-right, secularist and Islamist conservative political parties, have so far failed to unite around a joint candidate, and will likely compete separately against the candidate of the People's Alliance, formed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The secularist Republican People's Party (CHP), the far-right Good Party (IP) and the Islamist conservative Felicity Party (SP) have been in intense political talks since last week among party officials, despite distant ideological stances, around an "anti-Erdoğan" shared ground.

Gül, a founding member of the ruling party AK Party, briefly served as Turkey's prime minister in 2002. He also served as foreign minister and Turkey's eleventh president.