Recently, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said problems between him and the president was at minimum. Such a statement confirms some analysis that there are actually differences between these two allies. Payman Yazdani of Mehr News International Service asked Semih Idiz, a Turkish columnist and political analyst about the Erdoğan-Davutoğlu duality which had been shaping Turkish foreign policy since the two politician began to cooperate in AK Party:
What do you think of Mr. Davutoğlu’s claim that there was no disagreement between him and the president? Are the differences major? And if there are, what are those? Today, some former Turkish officials including Ilter Turkmen warned about the Turkey's participation in Saudi-led anti-terrorism coalition.
We have indications that Erdoğan and Davutoğlu do not see eye to eye on a number of issues. Domestically, one may cite the question of a presidential system for Turkey. Davutoğlu says this is not a priority issue for his government. Erdoğan however insists that it is necessary to overcome the duality posed by two executives, namely popularly elected prime minister and a popularly elected president. Having said that, it is unlikely that Davutoğlu will go into an open conflict with Erdoğan on any issue, given that Erdoğan has a very strong hold on the Justice and Development Party (AKP). Davutoğlu will nevertheless try to downplay the issue, and he will be aided by the fact that the AKP does not have enough seats on Parliament to realize Erdoğan’s dream of a presidential system, on his own.
