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Turkish President Erdogan's Push For Control Pushes PM Out Of Office

Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu won't run again at the country's May 22 special congress after a dispute with the country's president.
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Turkey's prime minister is stepping down after long opposing the increasing control from Turkey's president.

Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu — who was hand-picked by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in 2014 — said, "My loyalty to the president will last till the end."

Technically, a prime minister in Turkey has more power than the country's president.

But Erdoğan has continued to push for increased authority. Both men belong to the Justice and Development Party — or AKP in Turkish.

Last week, the AKP took away Davutoglu's power to choose the country's party leaders — just another move opponents say was forcing Davutoglu's obedience to Erdoğan.

Davutoglu and Erdoğan reportedly met on Wednesday but apparently didn't make any headway.

Davutoglu will leave behind a European Union deal with Angela Merkel that would've, in part, let Turkish citizens travel to EU countries without a visa. But Erdoğan has since said he was the one who worked on the deal.

Davutoglu will remain in his current party that has a majority control, but will become a legislator instead of running for re-election in the upcoming congress session.

Turkey's new prime minister will be chosen at that May 22 session. Some of those possibly in the running include Erdoğan's own son-in-law.

This video includes clips from Presidency of the Republic of TurkeyTRT and Haberturk and images from Getty Images and Facebook / Grand National Assembly of Turkey.