Who's who in Erdo?an-Davuto?lu relationship?

To be frank, nobody expected tension to surface so soon in relations between Turkish President Tayyip Erdo?an and Prime Minister Ahmet Davuto?lu.

Erdo?an had handpicked Davuto?lu to succeed him both as head of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Parti) and the government. There were reasons for that, the first being to cut the path of Abdullah Gül, the outgoing president, to leading both the party and the government.

Davuto?lu has long been a name that the AK Parti grassroots is proud of: A successful academic from a low income family from Central Anatolia - rather like former presidents Süleyman Demirel and Turgut Özal, for example, though more on the Islamist side of the political spectrum. The party rank and file also respected and sympathized with Davuto?lu, which made Erdo?an think that he could be an ideal substitute for Gül, who declared months before leaving office that if he returned to politics he would not assume the role of Dmitri Medvedev to Erdo?an?s Vladimir Putin. Davuto?lu was perceived as a threat to neither Erdo?an nor anyone in the party.

For the first few months, everything worked smoothly. Davuto?lu was delivering his public speeches and Erdo?an was running the show, mainly with his previous top operatives. They were an efficient team. Deputy Prime Minister Yalç?n Akdo?an; Interior Minister Efkan Ala; ?brahim Kal?n in the presidential palace; former National Intelligence Organization (M?T) Chief Hakan Fidan and of course former Transport Minister Binali Y?ld?r?m, who is very good in relations with business circles, being among the top figures in Erdo?an?s team.

The picture started to go weird when Y?ld?r?m appeared on private broadcaster NTV in December, saying that Erdo?an was going to summon the...