"Ihsanoğlu elected OIC secretary general with Turkish PM support"

Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said that Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the main opposition candidate for president, could not have been elected secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, or OIC, in 2004, if Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan had not supported his bid.

"If the Justice and Development Party had not been in power, would the Arab states have thought of electing a general secretary from Turkey?" asked Davutoglu, speaking at a special debate at the state-run TRT channel on Friday.

"I would not have wished to talk about this. But if he sees he has a right to critize foreign policy, into which so much labor went, then we see we have a right to ask something," he said.

"He has personally known how we have dragged the mechanicm on behalf of Turkey. It was thanks to Turkey, if he could find an opportunity to take the position of the sectetary general in this organization," he added.

Davutoglu also said Ihsanoglu's criticism of the government's foreign policy, despite his knowledge of how much has been done, did not seem appropriate. "Ihsanoglu has tried to base his election campaign on the critism of foreign policy. However, the foreign policy he has criticized is the foreign policy that made him general secretary." he said.

The foreign minister also refuted a claim by Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, the leader of the Republican People's Party, or CHP, that Ihsanoglu was the leader of all Islamic countries when he was taking the office of secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, or OIC.

"This position is very important, but in the final instance the member states make a decision and the general secretary implies," he said.