Turkey's former President Gül 'ready' to serve again if 'needed'

Former Turkish President Abdullah Gül appeared live on news channel NTV on the evening of Sept. 17 for the first time since he handed over his post to President Tayyip Erdo?an after the presidential elections on Aug. 10, 2014.

What he has had to say has been a matter of concern in not only political circles but also economic circles as well since then, especially following the June 7 elections, before which President Erdo?an had put his weight behind the Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) campaign with a target to shift into a presidential system and after which the AK Parti lost its parliamentary majority. Amid the ?What did we do wrong?? debate within the party eyes had turned to Gül, with some criticism that if he had spoken up more clearly, even before the presidential elections in 2014 in order to claim to be the chairman after Erdo?an, things would have unfolded differently in Turkey; in a rather moderate manner.

Apart from what he said in private conversations, Gül had always responded to those criticisms in public with almost the same remark: That he was one of the founders of the party, it was his party and he - as someone who served as president - would not put himself forward for active politics again. Yet, especially after Erdo?an started to overshadow Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu - whom he had hand-picked as his successor - as Turkey was heading for the June 7 elections, Gül was starting to be seen as a potential alternative who didn?t have any ambition to rule the country single-handedly.

Actually, it is no secret Gül at first wanted to speak up before the AK Parti congress on Sept. 12 but later on changed his mind, probably not to be accused of stirring things up if things went south.

During the interview Gül...