ahmet davutoglu says he will step out later this month. president erdogan can tighten his grip on power. but the outgoing premise or appears to remain loyal, in public at least. >> when he spoke to party delegates following the announcement, he chose his words carefully. >> i maintain my loyalty to our president until my last dying breath. no one has ever heard a word from the against our president and no one ever will. i want this to be known clearly and i will not allow this issue to be exploited. the honor of our players and -- of our president is my honor. his family's honor is my honor. his family is my family. >> davutoglu appealed to party members not to allow his resignation to split the governing party which has been in charge of turkey since 2002. the opposition has criticized the move and on the streets, opinions are divided. >> our great mentor believes this is the right move your it is great. it means he was not happy with davutoglu. he will introduce someone who works hard. it is not good to oppose everything. whatever our gr

after being elected last november, ahmet davutoglu told a news conference today he will not seek thehip again. his resignation follows several public disagreements with turkey's president recep tayyip erdogan. he wants to boost his own constitutional powers. i spoke to stephen cook, senior fellow at the council on foreign relations. was the promised to push, or did he go voluntarily -- was the prime minister pushed, or did he go voluntarily? stephen: he was pushed. these men have cohabited uneasily. they both have outsized ambitions, and president erdoga n was angry prime minister davutoglu had not fully supported his efforts to change the constitution, in fact to bring in a new constitution where all power would flow to the presidency. anchor: so he wants a prime minister who is a puppet? stephen: his intention when he chose davutoglu was for him to be a puppet. he wants anyone who will actually be a -- a new one who would actually be a puppet and go along with this plan for a new constitution which will abolish the prime in, essentially. anchor: how much support does erdogan have i

turkey announced today he's resigning, moving the nato nation ever closer to authoritarian rule ahmet davutoglu had held his office since 2014, but he was at odds with president recep tayyip erdogan, who's pushing for greater power. still, the prime minister pledged continued support for erdogan, despite his crackdown on dissent. >> ( translated ): my loyalty to our president will continue until the last breath i will breathe. nobody has or will hear a single word against our president from my mouth. everybody should know that and i would never let people exploit this matter. >> woodruff: the resignation comes as europe is relying on turkey to cut off the flow of migrants, and the u.s. needs its help fighting the islamic state group. >> sreenivasan: back in this country, the number of sexual assaults reported in the military stayed about the same last year, but pentagon officials say it's still far too high. in all, there were 6,083 reports of assaults in 2015, virtually unchanged from 2014. but, more than 16,000 service members intervened in situations they believed could escalate to sexual as