According to the AKP's convention, the party chief and Premier are always the same person.
Ahmet Davutoglu was expected to officially announce his resignation but he hasn’t done so yet.
Despite pledging loyalty to President Erdogan, Davutoglu’s decision was widely anticipated after reports of a rift between the two men over plans to move the country to a more presidential system of government.
Davutoglu was appointed Prime Minister in 2014 but he has recently been at loggerheads with President Erdogan over ways to settle the Kurdish problem and the detention of journalists and public figures critical of the president.
His resignation comes at a time of growing insecurity in Turkey. The war in Syria and threat posed from Daesh, as well as an the escalating conflict with Kurdish PKK fighters, has resulted in several major attacks on Turkish soil.
Yelena Suponina, a senior expert at the Russian Institute of Strategic Studies in Moscow, explained Ahmet Davutoglu’s departure from the post of party leader by President Erdogan’s desire to cling to power.
“Davutoglu has recently been gaining popularity among AK party members. He is not as charismatic as Erdogan but he is decisive and responsive.
Erdogan is getting old and Davutoglu is seen by many as potential successor,” Suponina told RIA Novosti.
She added that Erdogan, who considers himself indispensable, would obviously try to sideline his Prime Minister and would redouble his effort to make Turkey a presidential republic.
Turkish political scientist Hakan Aksai said that even though Ahmet Davutoglu tried to toe the President’s line, the two still differed over the arrest of journalists and scholars critical of Ankara’s ongoing military operation against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party in the country’s southeast.
“Davutoglu was holding out for a negotiated solution to the problem if PKK agreed to end its armed struggle. Erdogan disagreed, saying that the ‘doors for talks are now shut,’” Aksai told RIA.
He added that no matter who is going to become the next Turkish Prime Minister, he will stick firmly to the President’s line.
“This means that Turkey is already a presidential republic where the Prime Minister wields no real power. Erdogan has shown that he will tolerate no dissent whatsoever,” Hakan Aksai emphasized.
