Outgoing Turkish president Abdullah Gul said on Tuesday that Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was likely to take over as chairman of the ruling AK Party, and thus become the next prime minister.
Outgoing Turkish president Abdullah Gul said on Tuesday that Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu was likely to take over as chairman of the ruling AK Party, and thus become the next prime minister.
Turkey's current prime minister and AKP chairman Tayyeb Erdogan earlier this month tightened won the country's first direct presidential elections with more than 51 percent of the vote.
"As far as I see, Davutoglu will take over the post. We will support him," Gul said, answering journalists' questions during a farewell reception in the capital Ankara.
Erdogan will step down as leader of the AK Party when he is inaugurated as head of state on Aug. 28, as required by the constitution; but has made clear that he wants the party he co-founded with Gul more than a decade ago to remain loyal and unified.
Speculation has been growing that Davutoglu, a close Erdogan ally, was being groomed as his replacement. On Tuesday he was dispatched to thank AKP voters for supporting Erdogan's successful presidential bid, seen by many as a sign of his impending promotion.
A formal decision on Erdogan's replacement is expected following an AK Party Congress, due on August 27.
Appointed as the top diplomat of Erdogan's cabinet in May 2009, Davutoglu had also served as Gul's foreign policy advisor both during his ministerial and presidential terms.
The outgoing president also repeated his previous remarks in which he said he would continue to serve for his cause and the party he had founded.
According to results from August 10 presidential election, Erdogan got 51.79 percent of the vote and was elected to a five-year term as president.
Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the joint candidate of the two opposition parties, received 38.44 percent of the votes while Selahattin Demirtas, candidate of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, won 9.76 percent.
