Turkish President Gül leaves office with broken heart

President Gül and the first lady depart the presidential palace with a bitter taste following due to a ‘smear campaign’ against their staff President Abdullah Gül and First Lady Hayrünnisa Gül are departing the Çankaya Presidential Palace after seven years in residence with a sense of sadness following what they term “disrespect” on the part of some pro-government publications.

This resentment comes not only because President-elect Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has closed the doors on Gül’s return to the Justice and Development Party (AKP) but also because of a smear campaign against the president and his staff at the presidency. The couple has declared the campaign “a display of disrespect and rudeness,” while adding that they were particularly hurt because the campaign was driven by “the newcomers of the political cause they belong to.”

“To be honest, I have observed a considerable amount of disrespect from our neighborhood in the last process. I have followed all of them. Everybody around me was doing his or her job in the framework of an impartial presidency,” Gül told Ankara bureau chiefs on the sidelines of his last farewell reception on Aug. 19.

Gül referred to an ongoing smear campaign against his closest advisers through the pro-government media that was increased in recent months after the outgoing president hinted at his intention to return to his AKP. Gül was among the founders of the AKP along with Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2001. He was elected as president in 2007 after which he was forced to cut his links with the party in line with constitutional requirements.

“Those who know me are well aware of my...