Former Turkish president Abdullah Gül has announced he would not be running in early elections.
Gül, a founding member of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's ruling AKP party, briefly served as Turkey's prime minister following elections that brought the party to power in 2002. He served as Erdogan's foreign minister and Turkey's eleventh president.
Speaking in Istanbul Saturday, Gül said he would have considered running as a presidential candidate had there been "widespread agreement and desire" for him to do so.
"Felicity Party leader Temel Karamollaoğlu suggested me as a presidential candidate in the upcoming election, I told him that I would take the necessary steps if a very strong consensus was reached, but that wasn't the case", Gül said in a press conference.
Last week Erdoğan called snap elections for June 24, bringing the polls forward by a year-and-a-half.
