On Monday, former Turkish Prime Minister and current head of the Future Party, Ahmet Davutoglu, slammed Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. He described him and his family as the biggest calamity that has befallen the country.
In press statements, Davutoglu discussed the foreign policy of Turkey under President Erdoğan, saying that it was close to reaching a dead-end. This is mainly linked to the continuing deterioration of the Turkish economy, and Ankara’s growing international isolation.
He pointed out that President Erdoğan’s aggressive and adversarial foreign policy has led several Arab, and European countries to reassess Turkey as a competitive, rather than a cooperative, regional actor. Only Azerbaijan, Qatar, Somalia, and the half of Libya in control of the Government of National Accord (GNA) have remained allies of Turkey.
According to statistics by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), the number of Syrian mercenaries recruited by Ankara, and sent to Libya, has reached approximately 18,000. This includes 350 minors, under the age of 18.
In a statement, the SOHR reported that a new batch of 450 mercenaries recently returned from Libya, after the end of their contracts. They fought alongside the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord (GNA), and against the Libyan National Army (LNA).
Davutoglu, once one of President Erdogan’s closest associates served as Minister of Foreign Affairs, and then Prime Minister before his resignation. He stated that Erdogan’s eagerness to remain in power caused him to forge unnatural political alliances in principle. For instance, Erdogan has struck an alliance with the National Movement led by Devlet Bahçeli, and the Fatherland Party led by Dogu Perincek. Davutoglu explained at his party’s headquarters in the city of Mersin, in southern Turkey, that these alliances had been established at the end of the 1990s.
Commenting on the President’s recent call to the Turks to be patient with the hardships they are going through, Davutoglu added: “The nation will be patient. But for what calamity will they be patient? In all this, I wonder. You yourself are the calamity. The biggest calamity that befell this people is the regime that turned the country into a disastrous family business.”