Erdogan is applauded by lawmakers after he took the oath of office for a new presidential term at the Parliament in Ankara, Turkey. — Reuters photo
ANKARA: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday took on greater powers than any Turkish leader for decades as he was sworn in for a second presidential term, naming his son-in-law to the key post of finance minister in a revamped cabinet.
Erdogan, who has already transformed Turkey in 15 years of rule, took his oath of office in parliament under the new presidential system denounced by opponents as a one-man regime.
Describing the monumental change as a “new beginning”, he vowed at a later ceremony at his vast Ankara presidential palace to be the president of all 81 million Turks.
“We have come not to be master but to be servant of our people,” he added.
He then unveiled the first cabinet under the new system, appointing his son-in-law Berat Albayrak, 40, to the crucial post of finance minister, in a move that appeared to rattle markets.
Army chief of staff General Hulusi Akar joined the government as defence minister but Mevlut Cavusoglu kept the post of foreign minister.
Fuat Oktay, a former head of Turkey’s emergencies agency, has been named as the sole vice president, a newly-created post.
The new system, which dispenses with the office of prime minister, was agreed in a bitterly-fought 2017 referendum narrowly won by the ‘Yes’ camp. The issue continues to polarise public opinion in Turkey.
“A partisan one-man regime starts officially today,” said the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper.
But the pro-government daily Yeni Safak hailed it as an ‘historic day’, saying: “One page is closing in Turkish history and a new page is opening.”
The president now sits 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.
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, is being subsumed into the foreign ministry.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim now goes down in history as the 27th and final holder of the post in Turkey. He is expected to become speaker of the new parliament.
The transition ceremony was overshadowed by a deadly train derailment in northwest Turkey on Sunday that killed 24 people and injured hundreds. Erdogan said that folk dancing and a laser show had been cancelled as a result.
Those attending included Ankara’s top allies from Africa, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union but relatively few European figures. — AFP