Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bülent Arinç has strongly denied a Turkish newspaper report that President Abdullah Gül intervened to persuade him not to resign from the Cabinet following difference with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
According to 'Taraf' daily, the dispute arose when Erdogan disapproved Arinç's remarks on the Gezi Park demonstrations. Following this, Arinç reportedly came out of last week's Cabinet meeting and threatened to resign from his Cabinet post and the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). The President reportedly stepped in as other Ministers failed to convince him not to resign.
"I'm afraid this reporting is not the product of a good intention," Arnic responded to the Taraf report through his Twitter account on Thursday.
Apparently referring to rumors in the Turkish media that Erdogan has bitter relations with the AK Party administration, Arinç said: "This dirty scheme, which intends to show our Prime Minister as 'bad' and 'lonely' is unavailing and meaningless. With the help of God and support of our people, we are overcoming every single game and scheme played against our government to halt our dreams of creating a greater Turkey."
Unlike Erdogan, Arinç has adopted a more reconciliatory approach toward the Gezi Park protesters who took to the streets against the government's plans to demolish the Gezi Park in central Istanbul's Taksim Square.
While Erdogan was away in Morocco, Arinç in his capacity as Acting Prime Minister met with Gül about the protests and apologized for the undue and disproportionate force used by the police against an initially peaceful group of protesters in Gezi Park.
According to Turkish media reports, Erdogan, who remained defiant to the protests, was angry at Arinç for offering an apology to the protesters.
The Turkish government had drawn criticism abroad for its police crackdown that began on May 31 against the environmentalists and other activists in Taksim Square protesting plans to denude the Gezi Park as part of converting it into a shopping complex.
Erdogan, who was re-elected in 2011 and is in power for the last ten years, mobilized his Islamist supporters over the weekend for two huge rallies at which he insisted that his duty was to keep order, berated the media for the coverage of the protests and lashed out at unspecified foreigners who want to "hurt" Turkey.
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