Ahmet Davutoğlu

Just as people began to talk about a power struggle between Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu in the final days of 2014, Erdoğan finished the debate like Alexander the Great cutting the Gordian knot.

The arrest of a 16-year-old teenager for insulting President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan makes one wonder if those who are trying to protect Erdoğan in this way are aware of the damage they are actually doing to his image and to Turkey’s reputation.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has ended speculation as to when he will chair a Cabinet meeting, announcing Dec. 29 that he will do so on Jan. 19, 2015, while underlining that the move was in line with the charter and within the knowledge of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu.

Claims by former Transport Minister Binali Yıldırım that President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan will preside over a Cabinet meeting on Jan. 5, 2015, are incorrect, Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arınç has said.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu also said there was no such meeting on that date, while adding that a president has previously overseen a Cabinet meeting.

The new election campaign song of Turkey's ruling party praises Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu to the skies, saluting him a "wise, brave man" who is also a "true grandson of the Ottomans."

Police have captured provocateurs who infiltrated into Turkey to start clashes in Turkey’s southeastern province of Şırnak that left three people dead, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu said Dec. 28.

The outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) and Turkey’s Hizbullah, whose members are mostly Kurdish Islamists, have engaged in fresh street battles in a southeastern province near Turkey's border with Syria, killing at least three, more than two months after the clashes that led to the deaths of 36 people.

Everything has started to unfold at a faster pace in Turkey’s Kurdish peace bid, and in an extremely symbolic manner.

A parliamentary commission tasked with the inquiry into corruption claims against four former ministers postponed on Dec. 22 a key vote on whether they should be tried at the Supreme Council. The vote will now take place on Jan. 5, before the commission is set to introduce its report to the Parliament’s General Assembly, most probably on Jan. 9.
 

Turkey’s leaders are committed to EU membership and still aim to play in the “first division” of Europe despite a bitter row over a crackdown on the media, a top adviser to Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has said.