Leader of Turkey's opposition Saadet Party resigns

Kurtulmuş said the latest court ruling that transferred party administration from his leadership to a board of trustees was the final straw that pushed him to resignation.

"I did not wish for the tension created during the congress to rise anymore," Kurtulmuş said, "but our emotional ties to the party broke when we had forks thrown at us."

He was referring to an iftar dinner during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan in which Necmettin Erbakan supporters protested Kurtulmuş by shouting slogans and throwing forks, knives and saltshakers at him.

His administration was no longer capable of continuing politics in the Saadet Party, Kurtulmuş said.

Kurtulmuş announced that he would not be entering the upcoming party convention and that he was resigning from party leadership and membership "in order to prevent any further quarrels."

A rift emerged between the supporters of Erbakan, an iconic name in a conservative Turkish political movement, and Kurtulmuş after the party’s convention in July when Kurtulmuş excluded the names of Erbakan’s relatives and friends within the party leadership’s inner circle.

When Erbakan’s followers appealed to the party administration to nullify the convention and call a new one, they were denied by Kurtulmuş and applied to the court to have the convention at which Kurtulmuş was elected party leader annulled.

An Ankara court ruled on Sept. 22 that the party must elect a new administration at a party convention.


/Hurriyet Daily News/