The Biggest Calamity that Befell Turkey

Ahmet Davutoglu, leader of the Future Party in Turkey, said that the current president of the country, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his family, are the biggest “calamity that befell our people,” according to the Turkish opposition Zaman newspaper.

Davutoglu, one of Erdogan’s closest associates in the past when he served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and then Prime Minister before his resignation, said that Erdogan’s eagerness to remain in power made him not hesitate to forge unnatural political alliances in principle, such as his alliance with a nationalist party and another leftist movement, the national movement led by Dolt Bahçeli, and the Fatherland Party led by Dogo Brincik.

Davutoglu explained at his party’s conference in the city of Mersin, southern Turkey, that Erdogan had established an alliance even with these groups at the end of the 1990s, accusing him of also putting obstacles in his face.

“Erdogan left his friends who struggled and fought with him in exchange for the symbols of ancient Turkey, and he is trying to hold us back now. He put to his right Bahceli, who was one of the partners of the 1997 coup, and to his left, Brincik, who was against the call to prayer and the veil, and said that the 1997 coup is still going on,” he said.

Commenting on Erdogan’s recent call to the Turks to be patient with the hardships they are going through, Davutoglu added:

“The nation will be patient. But on 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.”