ANKARA, July 9, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is to be
sworn in for his second term as head of state on Monday, taking on greater
powers than any Turkish leader for decades under a new system condemned by
opponents as autocratic.
Erdogan, who has transformed Turkey by allowing Islam to play a greater
role in public life and boosting the country’s international stature, will
take his oath almost two years after defeating a bloody attempted coup.
The inauguration in parliament after Erdogan’s June election victory will
be followed by a lavish ceremony at his palace attended by dozens of world
leaders marking the transition to the new executive presidency system.
Erdogan will face immediate and major challenges in his second term, posed
by an imbalanced if fast-growing economy and foreign policy tensions between
the West and Turkey, a NATO member.
He has also pledged to end the state of emergency that has been in place
since the failed July 2016 coup and has seen the biggest purge in the history
of modern Turkey.
In what appeared to be the final emergency decree issued just one day
before the inauguration, 18,632 public sector employees were ordered
dismissed including thousands of soldiers and police officers. After the
inauguration, Erdogan will immediately turn to foreign policy, visiting
northern Cyprus and Azerbaijan, both traditional first ports of call for a
newly elected Turkish leader.
He will then head to more challenging encounters at a NATO summit in
Brussels where he will meet with US counterpart Donald Trump.
– Turkey’s last PM –
The new system was agreed in a bitterly fought 2017 referendum, but the
changes have been vehemently denounced by the opposition.
The president will sit at the top of a vertical power structure marked by
a slimmed-down government with 16 ministries instead of 26 and multiple
bodies reporting to him.
Emre Erdogan, professor of political science at Istanbul’s Bilgi
University, said the parliament’s powers were “highly restricted” under the
new system.
In one of the most significant changes, the EU affairs ministry, set up in
2011 to oversee Turkey’s faltering bid to join the bloc, will be subsumed
into the foreign ministry.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim will on Monday go down in history as the
27th and final holder of a post that has existed since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk
founded modern Turkey, and whose origins date back to the Ottoman Empire.
Erdogan’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) on Saturday nominated
Yildirim as parliament speaker, an appointment likely to be rubber-stamped by
the chamber on Thursday.
Those attending the ceremony at the presidential palace Monday evening
will include Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, in a new sign of the
warm ties between Ankara and Moscow.
Among 22 heads of state attending will be Venezuelan President Nicolas
Maduro, regarded with disdain by Washington but an ally of Erdogan, and
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko.
– Fresh cabinet –
The new cabinet, due to be announced at 1800 GMT, is expected to have a
different look, especially after Erdogan said the government would include
non-AKP figures.
The most intense attention will focus on who will be responsible for
foreign policy and the economy.
Current Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu could in theory continue in his
job but reports have said Erdogan may choose his spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, or
even spy chief Hakan Fidan to succeed him.
The markets will keep a close eye on economic appointments, keen to see a
steady hand at the helm in a fast-growing economy dogged by double-digit
inflation and a widening current account deficit.
Erdogan, who first came to power as premier in 2003, won 52.6 percent of
ballots cast in June, higher than the 51.79 percent he garnered in the 2014
polls.
His closest rival, Muharrem Ince of the main opposition Republican
People’s Party (CHP), managed 30.6 percent, but the party is now locked in
internal battles over its future leadership and direction.
The AKP failed to win a majority in parliament, taking 294 of the 600
seats, meaning it will need its allies in the Nationalist Movement Party
(MHP), which has 49 seats, to ensure a majority.
Analysts have said that the partnership with nationalists could push the
AKP into more hardline policies, notably on Kurdish issues and relations with
the West.