The Turkish president is also held back by his junior coalition partner and leader of the far-right Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), Devlet Bahceli, the former prime minister and Erdogan ally told Turkey’s Karar TV.

"Erdoğan is currently under the tutelage of the remnants of the February 28 (period,’’ Davutoglu said, referring to the post-modern coup of 1997, which was said to have been motivated by the secular military’s fear of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) predecessor Welfare (Refah) Party leader Necemettin Erbakan’s Islamist agenda.

"I am issuing a warning. Mr. Erdogan will soon be eliminated. Mr. Erdogan is at a crossroads, it will be very difficult for him to win the elections with the People’s Alliance’’ he added, referring to the AKP-MHP ruling People’s Alliance.

The Future Party leader also criticized Erdogan for failing to wish well for a Future Party official, who was injured in a mob attack earlier this week.

Future Party deputy chairman Selcuk Ozdag suffered a bloody attack by an armed gang in front of his house in Ankara on Friday. Two people on Sunday were detained in relation to the attack, which is believed to have been carried out by a mob linked to the far-right MHP.

Erdogan is not taking the attack seriously, Davutoglu said, as he failed to "wish the lawmaker a speedy recovering or vow to find the perpetrators.’’

The Future Party leader also accused the ruling alliance of "attempting to prevent the progress of the Future Party,’’ and Erdogan of conducting conjectural politics not based on principles.

Davutoglu was the prime minister and chairman of the ruling AKP from 2014 to 2016 until he fell out with Erdogan and was forced out. He resigned from the party in September 2019 before staring the AKP rival Future Party in December of the same year.

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