Former Turkish Prime Minister and ex-AKP chairman Ahmet Davutoğlu convened the senior officials of his new political party (“Party of the Future”) and called for new elections.

Giving a speech on 1 November 2020, he denounced Turkey’s backsliding into the form of a “tribal state”, characterized by “the absence of choice.” He denounced “the culture of despotism” that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is instilling in the country.

Above all, he said Erdoğan is the greatest danger confronting Europe, even worse than Covid-19.

Professor Davutoğlu is a specialist in international relations. In his book Stratejik derinlik: Türkiye’nin uluslararası konumu (Strategic depth: Turkey’s international position), he describes a phase of stabilization (“zero problems with neighbors”) followed by a neo-Ottoman policy as regards the rest of the Muslim world; a program that he implemented from 2001 to 2016. Once in the opposition, he first denounced President Erdoğan’s personality cult and currently takes aim at his ambition to be enthroned, in 2023, as the new caliph of Islam.