Former Turkish PM Davutoglu Quits Erdogan’s Ruling AK Party

(Bloomberg) -- Ahmet Davutoglu, a one-time prime minister and chairman of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ruling AK Party, announced he was resigning from the governing bloc and plans to form a new political movement.

“AK Party has waived its founding principles,” Davutoglu said, speaking at a press conference in Ankara. The fact that the party has taken disciplinary action against him, and other politicians that support him, means the organization has effectively “liquidated” the AK Party of 18 years ago, he said.

Davutoglu served as premier and chairman of AK Party from 2014 to 2016 and is the second key political figure to resign from the movement co-founded by Erdogan in 2001. Ali Babacan, who served as vice premier for the economy and a foreign minister, severed ties with the party in July and plans to launch a political party later this year.

Davutoglu is working on establishing “a new political movement” based on the values and principles that the ruling party has lost, he said.

His speech was partially carried live on Halk TV, a channel affiliated with the opposition Republican People’s Party, and Davutoglu’s own Twitter feed. No mainstream TV channel broadcast the press conference.

In a separate development, Ibrahim Turhan, a former central bank deputy governor and the ex-chairman of Borsa Istanbul, said in a Twitter post that he had resigned from the AK Party. The party management sees the organization as “a family company,” Turhan said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Taylan Bilgic in Istanbul at tbilgic2@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Onur Ant at oant@bloomberg.net, Constantine Courcoulas, Robert Brand

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