Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has lashed out at the EU for telling Ankara to change its terror laws if it wants a visa-free regime. “We will go our way, you go yours,” he said on Friday in a televised speech, stressing that Turkey was under a terrorist threat.
Professor of political science at the University of Utah Hakan Yavuz told Radio Sputnik that the EU leadership will be unable to change Ankara’s policy. He noted that both Brussels and Turkey had acted unethically.
“Davutoglu was picked and made advisor, then foreign minister and then prime minster by Erdogan and this time he fired him as well. Davutoglu never had local power and whatever power he did have it depended on Erdogan.”
“The president felt threatened or he felt that Davutoglu might challenge his authority because Turkey is not a presidential system, it is a parliamentary system and Erdogan wants to be a supreme leader of the county. He wants to be the supreme president and run every aspect of Turkish politics,” Yavuz said.
The analyst mentioned that in his opinion Turkey is facing a constitutional crisis.
Politicians from Germany’s ruling coalition also voiced their concerns over Davutoglu’s decision to resign. They said that Davutoglu’s departure will pave the way for the country’s president to rule unchecked.
“In my opinion the European Union will do whatever Erdogan tells them to do. The EU is in no position to dictate anything to Erdogan given the political situation over the last two years. I don’t consider Davutoglu more liberal. I think there was a difference between Erdogan and Davutoglu in terms of how they wanted to implement their vision over domestic and foreign policy, but seeing Davutoglu’s articles and publications I would consider him to be more ideological, more Islamist than Erdogan himself,” Yavuz said.
The analyst further spoke about the relations between Erdogan and the EU. According to him, as long as Merkel supports Erdogan, the EU will not change or suggest any policy change to Erdogan.
“I don’t think that EU is more ethical than Erdogan. These are politicians and each one of them tries to remain in power.”
The analyst further spoke about Turkey’s budding relationship with Saudi Arabia and the recent visit by Prince Salman to Turkey.