Former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, who also was the chairman of the Future Party (AA Photo)
Prosecutors on Sept. 3 announced they opened an investigation of former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, who also ran the Future Party, for allegedly insulting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.
In a statement, prosecutors in the capital Ankara said the probe was opened following comments that Davutoğlu, 67, shared on social media that were viewed as insulting to the president.
According to media reports, the investigation concerns remarks made by Davutoğlu during a visit to the southeastern province of Diyarbakır in 2022. The video of the remarks was circulating on social media in recent days.
Davutoğlu served as Türkiye’s foreign minister from 2009-2014 then as prime minister from 2014-2016.
After falling out with the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), Davutoğlu in 2019 established the Future Party.
On July 29, Davutoğlu announced that his Future Party would end its political activities, describing the decision as an effort to distance itself from what he called Türkiye’s “corrupted political climate.”
In a statement posted on X, Davutoğlu said that the move was “not a surrender” or a withdrawal from politics, but “a call for everyone to rethink politics.”
“We have decided to withdraw from party politics in order not to become part of the corrupted political climate,” he said, calling the move “a decision to establish moral distance.”
The Future Party is one of three opposition parties that jointly formed the New Path bloc in parliament alongside the SP and the Democracy and Progress Party (DEVA).
