Davutoğlu's new party promises to fight discrimination against Kurds and Alevis

Müzeyyen Yüce/ DUVAR

Former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu has unveiled the 143-page program for his newly-launched Future Party, the opposition party that the former ally of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and co-founder of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) was expected to establish at the end of this year. The program covers a variety of topics, including environmental, political, legal, foreign policy and national defense issues, and also addresses matters relating to the Turkey's Kurdish and Alevi minorities. 

The program vowed to recognize the legal status of cemevis, the worship house of the Alevis, a heterodox non-Sunni faith that accoutns for as much as a quarter of the country's population. The AKP has refused to recognize the legal right of the cemevis, which drew condemnation from the European Court of Human Rights in 2014, ruling that the government was discriminating against the Alevis. Unlike the country's numerous Christian and Jewish minority groups, Alevis are not recognized as an official religion in Turkey. 

Regarding the Kurds, another group that has faced no small amount of persecution and discrimination and were not allowed to speak their own mother tongue in public until the early 1990's. the program vowed to fight against identity-based discrimination: 

“The solution can be achieved by preventing any discrimination based on identities and reinforcing the belief that Kurds are equal and honorable citizens of this country on the basis of democratic citizenship. As a matter of fact, significant progress has been made in this regard. This approach will completely neutralize the efforts of the terrorists to create legitimacy based on abuse,” the program said, referring to the banned Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has fought a decades-long battle against the Turkish security forces for increased autonomy and Kurdish rights. 

Referring to the country's constitution, which despite being amended numerous times is nevertheless the product of the infamous 1980 military coup, the Future Party's program said that it should be written anew, as the amendments were not sufficient in establishing a liberal and pluralist structure. 

The party emphasized its support of Turkey's parliamentary system and insisted upon its independence. Traditionally a parliament-based system, a 2017 referendum heavily touted by Erdoğan resulted in the transformation to an executive presidential system of governance, enabling Erdoğan to consolidate more power in his hands. 

Davutoğlu isn't the only former Erdoğan ally with opposition aspirations. Former Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan is also expected to establish a breakaway party. Though critics have blasted the former AKP politicians for sufficiently failing to criticize the government's authoritarian tendencies and policies while they were members of the ruling party, they nevertheless could be a game changer in the Turkish political sphere if they are able to draw votes away in the next general election from the AKP, which experienced a huge setback in this year's local elections after losing nearly every major city in the country to the opposition.