admin
ANKARA. – Turkey’s prime minister formally submitted his resignation yesterday, paving the way for his replacement by a trusted ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who immediately expressed allegiance to the Turkish leader and vowed to follow his path.
Erdogan’s office said Ahmet Davutoglu resigned hours after the ruling party confirmed Transport and Communications Minister Binali Yildirim as its new chairman in an extraordinary party convention.
Erdogan is to formally ask Yildirim to form a new government later yesterday but Davutoglu remains caretaker prime minister until the new government is formed.
Davutoglu announced earlier this month that he was stepping down amid differences with Erdogan.
Yildirim is widely expected to be more in tune with Erdogan, who is pushing for an overhaul of the constitution that would give the largely ceremonial presidency executive powers.
“Our path is the path of the voice and the breath of the people, our party’s leader, Recep Tayyip Erdogan,” said Yildirim in a speech to thank delegates who voted overwhelmingly to endorse him as the new chairman of the governing Justice and Development Party, or AKP.
Yildirim, a founding member of the AKP, also paid homage to Erdogan in an earlier speech and made clear he intends work toward introducing a new constitution that would change Turkey’s political system into a presidential one, saying the “de facto situation” would turned into a “legal” one.
“We have always proudly said that we are Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s companion, that we share a common fate and a common passion,” Yildirim said.
“Mr President, we promise you that your passion will be our passion, your cause will be our cause, your path will be our path.”
In a message read at the opening of the convention, Erdogan again stressed the need for a new constitution and a new system of government and said he hoped the term ahead would help correct the current “skewed” system of administration. Delegates and party officials stood up as his message was read.
“My legal bond with the AKP may have ended the day I took the (presidential) oath of office, but my bonds of love have never ended and never will,” Erdogan said.
Supporters credit Yildirim, 60, for his role in developing major infrastructure projects which have helped buoy Turkey’s economy and boost the party’s popularity.
But critics, including the leader of the main opposition party, have accused him of corruption. Yildirim has rejected the accusation.
The change in party leadership comes at a time when NATO member Turkey is facing an array of security threats including renewed conflict with Kurdish rebels in the southeast, a wave of suicide bombings linked to Kurdish and Islamic State militants, as well as growing blowback from the war in neighboring Syria. – AP.
Online Reporter