Ahmet Davutoğlu political withdrawal

Former Turkish prime minister and former foreign minister Ahmet Davutoğlu announced the dissolution of the Gelecek Party, which he founded in 2019 and which held four seats in parliament after the 2023 election. He said the move was intended to avoid a “polluted political climate” and emphasized that it was a moral distance rather than a surrender. Davutoğlu also declared that he would withdraw from party politics and continue his work in academia, culture, science and diplomacy. The party’s four MPs will remain in parliament as independents within the New Way Group and will not join other parties.

Reactions included former parliamentary speaker Bülent Arınç praising Davutoğlu’s past service and suggesting he should have stayed within the AK Party. Commentators noted that Davutoğlu’s exit mirrors the trajectories of other former AK Party figures such as Ali Babacan, Mahmut Arıkan and Fatih Erbakan, and they speculated that the dissolution could reshape the opposition field ahead of Turkey’s upcoming general and presidential elections.