Erdogan begins his domination; political circles are concerned about country's future

NEWS DESK

The presidential system sought by Erdogan in a referendum in April 2017 will take effect on Monday. The prime minister will be removed and the president will hold the entire executive branch, which will expand Erdogan's domination over the Turkish state and be able to issue presidential decrees.

Erdogan has sworn in and will preside over a party at the presidential palace that officially devotes the transition to the presidential system.

The presidential term begins two years after a coup d'état on July 15, 2016, followed by large-scale cleaning, particularly in the armed forces, police and government departments, which led to the arrest and dismissal of tens of thousands of people.

The latest clean-up campaign announced on Sunday by more than 18,000 people, most of them soldiers and police, was dismissed by a constitutional decree presented as the latter in the state of emergency declared after the coup attempt.

The post of prime minister will be abolished. The president will hold the full executive branch and will be able to issue decrees. He will also appoint six of the 13 members of the Council of Judges and Prosecutors appointed to appoint and dismiss elements of the judicial system.

During the legislative elections that coincided with the presidential vote, Erdogan's AK Party won 95 seats out of 600, with its Nationalist Party winning 49 seats, meaning that the ruling party does not have a majority on its own and must count on its ally's support for control parliament.

After Erdogan has sworn in on Monday, he is expected to present his new cabinet, which is expected to include 16 ministries versus 26 in the current government without counting the prime minister, which means merging several ministries such as the European Affairs Ministry, which will become part of the foreign ministry.

The Turkish state faces major challenges, the most important of which is the economic crisis, the high inflation rate, the devaluation of the currency and a large deficit in the public accounts.

This is due to the lack of confidence in the markets with the economic strategy of the Turkish president, which is constantly calling for reducing the interest rate to combat inflation, while most economists recommend the opposite.

A number of Turkish politicians expressed their concern that this domination would give Erdogan power to take decisions that would plunge the Turkish state into a dangerous quagmire, the most important of which would be a fatal blow to the secularism of the state and the dedication of its project of Turkey's Islamization.

(T/S)

ANHA