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Turkish ministers welcome nomination of Davutoglu as prime minister

August 22, 2014 at 11:35 am

The nomination of Turkey’s Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to serve as the next prime minister of Turkey and the president of the ruling AK Party by Turkey’s President-elect Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been welcomed by many politicians aligned with the ruling party.

In press statements following the official announcement, deputy prime minister Emrullah Ishler said he welcomed the nomination of Davutoglu and announced that the AK Party will hold an urgent conference on 27 August, during which they will officially approve him as the party’s president and the country’s next prime minister.

He said the decision came after internal consultations within the party.

“The AK Party, since its election in December 2002, has had a crucial role in the establishment of modern Turkey,” Ishler said, adding that, “we will pursue the same track until we reach our goals by 2023.”

The Turkish minister of justice, Baker Bozdag noted that the nomination of Davutoglu is “a historic day in the political life of the AK Party,” stressing that the party is unanimously supportive of Erdogan’s choice and denying rumours that a senior advisor to Erdogan, Benali Yildrim, would hold a press conference on Friday to publicly reject the nomination of Davutoglu. “Yildrim was present during the nomination ceremony,” Bozdag said.

The minister of interior, Afkan Agla, promised that the party “will do everything at its disposal to help Davutoglu succeed in his new post”.

Vice-president of the AK Party Mohamed Ali Shahin added that they would continue working at “the same pace” under the new president. He also pointed out that choosing Davutoglu was a difficult task “because of the large number of qualified candidates in the party.”

In his speech at the nomination ceremony on Thursday, Erdogan said that Davutoglu’s “persistent efforts” in countering the “parallel entity” contributed to his nomination.

Davutoglu will be officially named AK Party president and prime minister in the party’s General Assembly on 27 August, while Erdogan is scheduled to take office on 28 August.