Turkey's Erdogan sworn in with new powers, names son-in-law finance minister

[webfact]

Turkey's Erdogan sworn in with new powers, names son-in-law finance minister

By Tulay Karadeniz and Tuvan Gumrukcu

 

Turkey's Tayyip Erdogan fulfilled a long-held ambition on Monday when he was sworn in as president with sweeping new powers over a country he has dominated and reshaped during his 15-year rule. Emily Wither reports.

 

ANKARA (Reuters) - President Tayyip Erdogan appointed his son-in-law as Turkey's finance minister on Monday hours after he was sworn in with sweeping new executive powers, promising a "strong government and a strong Turkey".

 

The lira <TRYTOM=D3>, which has lost nearly a fifth of its value against the dollar this year, dropped nearly 3 percent to 4.74 to the U.S. currency after the cabinet announcement.

 

Erdogan named his son-in-law Berat Albayrak as treasury and finance minister in an updated cabinet that excluded former deputy prime minister Mehmet Simsek, seen as the main market-friendly minister in the previous government.

 

The lira has been battered by concern about Erdogan's drive for lower interest rates and by comments in May that he planned to take greater control of the economy after the election, which he won on June 24.

 

Assuming the new executive presidency he has long fought to establish, Erdogan earlier took the oath of office in parliament before addressing international leaders gathered at the presidential palace in Ankara.

 

"We, as Turkey and as the Turkish people, are making a new start here today," he told the dignitaries and thousands of guests. "We are leaving behind the system that has in the past cost our country a heavy price in political and economic chaos."

 

Erdogan named Fuat Oktay, a former Turkish Airlines executive who studied in the United States, as vice president. Armed forces chief of staff Hulusi Akar was named defence minister. Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu remained in his post.

 

Erdogan, 64, says a powerful executive presidency is vital to drive economic growth, ensure security after a failed 2016 military coup and safeguard Turkey from war across its southern border in Syria and Iraq.

 

"We are embarking on this road by using this opportunity as best we can for a strong parliament, strong government and strong Turkey," he said.

 

'INSTITUTIONALISED AUTOCRACY'

The introduction of the new presidential system is the biggest overhaul of governance since the Turkish republic was established on the ruins of the Ottoman Empire nearly a century ago.

 

The post of prime minister has been scrapped and the president will be able to select a cabinet, regulate ministries and remove civil servants, all without parliamentary approval.

 

Erdogan's supporters see the changes as just reward for a leader who has put Islamic values at the core of public life, championed the pious working classes and overseen years of strong economic growth.

 

Opponents say the move marks a lurch to authoritarianism, accusing Erdogan of eroding the secular institutions set up by modern Turkey's founder, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and driving it further from Western values of democracy and free speech.

 

Marc Pierini, a former EU ambassador to Turkey and visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe, said Erdogan's new powers effectively make him a "super-executive president".

 

"Most powers will be concentrated in his hands, there will no longer be a prime minister, and almost none of the checks and balances of liberal democracies will be present. In other words, Turkey will be an institutionalised autocracy."

 

NO WESTERN LEADERS

State news agency Anadolu said Erdogan's inauguration celebration was attended by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

 

No major Western leader featured on a list of 50 presidents, prime ministers and other high-ranking guests.

 

Turkey is a member of the Western military alliance, NATO, but it has been at odds with the United States over military strategy in Syria and with the European Union over Ankara's purges of state institutions, armed forces, police and media following the failed coup.

 

There are 16 ministers in Erdogan's streamlined new cabinet, which Erdogan has said will be more efficient and act faster.

 

The new government faces immediate economic challenges. Inflation surged last month above 15 percent, its highest level in more than a decade, even though the central bank has raised interest rates by 5 percentage points since April.

 

Turkey also faces a widening current account deficit making it reliant on weak foreign investment to plug the gap.

 

Earlier on Monday the lira briefly dropped more than 1 percent after a decree removed a clause stipulating a five-year term for the central bank governor.

 

Scrapping the term would remove a shield that helps ensure the bank's independence from politicians, former central banker Ugur Gurses said. A senior adviser to Erdogan later said that governors would still be appointed for a five-year term.

 

(Reporting by Tulay Karadeniz and Tuvan Gumrukcu; Additional reporting by Ezgi Erkoyun, Daren Butler, Ali Kucukgocmen and Humeyra Pamuk in Istanbul, and Tuvan Gumrukcu and Ece Toksabay in Ankara; Writing by David Dolan and Gareth Jones; editing by Dominic Evans and Grant McCool)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2018-07-10

[klauskunkel]

2 hours ago, webfact said:

"We, as Turkey and as the Turkish people, are making a new start here today. We are leaving behind the system that has in the past cost our country a heavy price in political and economic chaos."

Exactly what the world needs: another dynastic dictatorship in the making...

[kamahele]

Trump's fantasy government

[SABloke]

40 minutes ago, kamahele said:

Trump's fantasy government

It seems more like Trump is your fantasy ? An article about Turkey, Erdogan, his son-in-law, the biggest changes in Turkish parliamentary practices in over a hundred years, currency depreciation; and all you can think of is Trump. ?

[Srikcir]

It would behoove Russia to encourage the split between the US and NATO-member Turkey to firm Russia's grand alliance with Syria and Turkey in the Middle East that requires US isolation.

There is no U.S. ambassador to Turkey.

Polls by the Pew Research Center found only 18% of Turks view the United States favorably. And though Turkey has been a member of NATO since 1952, only 23% of Turks have favorable views of the alliance. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-wp-tillerson-analysis-e78d2db2-1394-11e8-9065-e55346f6de81-20180216-story.html

 

 

[NickJ]

The US. Should really reconsider letting Turkey fly off and end on on dinner plate somwhere in Russia. 

[Morch]

1 hour ago, Srikcir said:

It would behoove Russia to encourage the split between the US and NATO-member Turkey to firm Russia's grand alliance with Syria and Turkey in the Middle East that requires US isolation.

There is no U.S. ambassador to Turkey.

Polls by the Pew Research Center found only 18% of Turks view the United States favorably. And though Turkey has been a member of NATO since 1952, only 23% of Turks have favorable views of the alliance. http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-wp-tillerson-analysis-e78d2db2-1394-11e8-9065-e55346f6de81-20180216-story.html

 

 

 

"....Russia's grand alliance with Syria and Turkey in the Middle East..."

 

As things stand, more like two distinct alliances, which aren't too easy to maintain at the same time.

[Morch]

1 hour ago, Morch said:

 

"....Russia's grand alliance with Syria and Turkey in the Middle East..."

 

As things stand, more like two distinct alliances, which aren't too easy to maintain at the same time.

 

And then there are Russia's previous comments on Erdogan's son-in-law. Nothing which Russia couldn't ignore or backtrack on, but still....

 

Russia accuses Turkish President Erdogan's son-in-law of being 'linked to Isis oil trade'

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-accuses-president-erdogans-son-in-law-of-being-linked-to-isis-oil-trade-a6761436.html

 

Email cache proves Turkish oil minister’s links to Isis oil trade, WikiLeaks claims

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/wikileaks-turkey-isis-oil-minister-email-cache-leaks-claims-a7460736.html

[Baerboxer]

7 hours ago, Morch said:

 

And then there are Russia's previous comments on Erdogan's son-in-law. Nothing which Russia couldn't ignore or backtrack on, but still....

 

Russia accuses Turkish President Erdogan's son-in-law of being 'linked to Isis oil trade'

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/russia-accuses-president-erdogans-son-in-law-of-being-linked-to-isis-oil-trade-a6761436.html

 

Email cache proves Turkish oil minister’s links to Isis oil trade, WikiLeaks claims

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/wikileaks-turkey-isis-oil-minister-email-cache-leaks-claims-a7460736.html

 

Another country falls to the grip of a dictatorial wannabee whose family are already well embedded in corruption.

[fakename]

Thats alright, Trump has his whole family and all his friends, in gov positions. 

[geriatrickid]

The Turkish people  elected Erdogan with a majority and along with that comes his right to select cabinet members of his own choosing. The fact that this would be frowned upon in the west doesn't matter because this is how they do it in that region.

 

 The EU was fortunate not to have admitted the barbarian state into its membership. 

 

[sammieuk1]

And you think the UK has troubles with Brexit the USA with Trump you ain't seen nothing this Friday Muslim will turn a once emerging country into civil war a liar coup faker thief are just his good points I urge all expats friends and tourists to get themselves and their money out now it will be a catastrophe.