Turkish President-elect Recep Tayyip Erdogan, when announcing his successor as prime minister and chairman of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) would be Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, spoke about how this move would affect Turkish foreign policy.
“With our decision, we are showing how much we seek peace and solidarity in our region and in the world. Davutoglu, who has attached priority to conscience elements of foreign policy, will now defend that even more forcefully at national and global levels.”
When looking back on Davutoglu’s five years and four months as Turkey's foreign minister, we see — besides this “conscience element” — many other foreign policy dimensions that are seriously lagging behind, have weakened or collapsed. For example, the process of Turkey’s EU membership is in the freezer, left to die. During the Davutoglu years, Turkey’s relations with Europe were consciously neglected, and the country made a strategic choice to distance itself from the West.