Turkey's ex-president warns against concentration of power by Erdogan

Daniel Dombey in Istanbul

Divisions within Turkey's once-unified AK party widened on Wednesday when former president Abdullah Gul sounded the alarm about a concentration of power under his successor Recep Tayyip Erdogan - and in particular about Mr Erdogan's ambitions to introduce a presidential system.

Speaking at an FT summit on Turkey on the day that the AK party formally announced plans to boost Mr Erdogan's powers as president should it prevail in June 7 general elections, Mr Gul redoubled his opposition to such a shift.

While Mr Erdogan says ditching the current parliamentary system will make governing Turkey more efficient, critics say it will lead towards one-man rule.

"Turkey has suffered from parliament's lack of sufficiency for a very long time, but when we are talking about a presidential system we have to be much more careful: checks and balances have to be very clear," Mr Gul said, giving what he described as his first major speech for some time. He said he favoured instead enhancing and perfecting the parliamentary system.

In an unmistakeable reference to Mr Erdogan's denunciation of domestic opponents and alleged conspiracies, he added: "Polarisation must stop; the climate must be normalised."

This week Mr Erdogan launched a furious attack on the head of the country's biggest business association; last week the country briefly shut down access to Twitter and YouTube even though its top court has ruled such measures unconstitutional.

Mr Gul, an AK party founder, argued that Turkey had lost economic momentum in the past two to three years amid concerns about the rule of law and freedom of speech. "There is a very clear need for a new leap in this country ... to set Turkey back on its course," he said.

On Wednesday, the Turkish lira hit the latest in a series of all-time lows against the dollar, falling at one point to TL2.73, more than 1 per cent down on the day.

Mr Gul's speech comes after other signs of friction within the party - including several apparent policy disagreements between Mr Erdogan and Ahmet Davutoglu, the prime minister. Mr Gul appeared to take a similar stance to Mr Davutoglu on some issues, declaring his support for a stalled anti-corruption legislative proposal backed by the prime minister.

But in setting out his most wide-ranging concerns to date about Mr Erdogan - while carefully avoiding mentioning the name of his old party comrade - the former president also made clear his own credentials as an alternative leader. That is a possible message to more than 70 ruling party MPs recently dropped as AKP candidates, who may be tempted to form a new party.

Mr Gul himself suggested that opposition parties would gain ground in the June elections - a development that could put the constitutional changes Mr Erdogan seeks beyond reach - even as he predicted the AK party would remain a single-party government.

He added that the party should not try to fashion a new constitution alone and appeared to warn against any attempt to perpetrate fraud at the polls, following controversy in Ankara's mayoral contest, an important race in local elections last year.

"There was never any doubt about the legitimacy of elections," Mr Gul said. "Here again everyone has a major responsibility."

He also called for Turkey to improve relations with Egypt and Israel - both countries where it has no ambassador - and to focus on its stalled EU membership bid.

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