ANKARA
Hakan Fidan returned Tuesday to his previous post as Turkey’s intelligence chief, after he withdrew his candidacy for the June parliamentary election.
On Monday, Fidan withdrew his nomination for parliament and was reappointed to his post as head of Turkey's National Intelligence Organization, to which he returned the following day.
According to prime ministry sources, Fidan made his decision following consultations with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu.
He had resigned from his post on Feb. 6 to run in the June 7 elections.
Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu stated Tuesday he had no disagreements with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan over the reinstatement of Hakan Fidan as head of Turkey's National Intelligence Organization, after opposition parties had criticized the action.
"The president and I do not have any... difference of opinion or different convictions on this issue," Davutoglu said at a parliamentary group meeting of his Justice and Development Party in Ankara.
Fidan, born in 1968 in Ankara, has held the top office of the National Intelligence Organization, or MIT, since May, 2010. He previously worked as deputy undersecretary when Recep Tayyip Erdogan was prime minister. He was also the head of the Turkish Development and Cooperation Agency, or TIKA.
He has been an influential figure in Turkey and made the headlines several times mainly related to Turkey's solution process and its Middle East policy.
