Will former President Gül start a new party?

A day before the inauguration of a new museum-library bearing his name on Dec. 4, in his Central Anatolian hometown of Kayseri, former Turkish President Abdullah Gül gave an interesting interview to CNN Türk.

Speaking to political journalist Hakan Çelik, Gül said: "I have been asked this question perhaps 40 times before. Each time I have said the same thing: I'm out of active politics and have no plans to return."

The recent wave of rumors about Gül setting up a new party to compete with President Tayyip Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party (AK Parti), which they established together in 2001, stems from his recent trips abroad. A meeting with former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and a conference in Jordan were shown as evidence on pro-government social media that Gül is conspiring with "foreigners" to establish a new party, divide the AK Parti, and take Erdoğan down.

His invitation to Erdoğan - his life-long fellow-traveler and successor as president - to inaugurate the new museum-library in Kayseri has not been enough to defy the speculation.

"I know how to establish a political party," Gül said in the CNN interview. "It is not done through foreign contacts. I am a native politician by nature; I know that you have to hit the road, knock on doors and persuade people."

And Gül doesn't want to do that.

In the Museum-Library there is a digital game board specially designed to rouse the interest of youngsters in politics, called "How to be a President?" Running against time, players have to identify the needs of voters, woo them, persuade parliament, and enter elections. 

A colleague asked whether Gül himself had played the game during preparation for the museum's opening.

"No, never" he said...