Turkey for one

Turkey for one

Recep Tayyip Erdogan was sworn in after the constitutional reform.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, re-elected in the elections of June 24, on Monday officially took office, completing the country’s transition to a presidential form of government. After the inauguration, which was attended by over 20 heads of state and government, on Tuesday, President Erdogan sent his foreign tour, which will be the culmination of his participation in the NATO summit in Brussels.

International activity of the Turkish leader, combined with the strengthening of its personal power are to strengthen its position in the dispute with the United States, Ankara threatens sanctions in case of purchase of the Russian anti-aircraft missile systems s-400.

Held on Monday in Ankara, the inauguration of re-elected Recep Tayyip Erdogan was intended to be the final point of radical political reform, which established the Turkish Republic, the presidential form of government for the first time since its formation in 1923. After taking the oath in Parliament, Mr. Erdogan went to the presidential Palace, where was held another ceremony marking the change in the political structure of the country. The evening was declared a new, shorter composition of the government, which was five fewer Ministers, while the post of Prime Minister was abolished altogether.

To appoint members of the government and Vice-presidents will be the President Erdogan.

Witness the “historic moment” in addition to representatives of ruling party of justice and development have more than 20 heads of States and governments, most of which represented countries in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet republics and Muslim States.

The Russian delegation at the ceremony was headed by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. As a personal guest of Mr. Erdogan in Ankara has arrived the leader of LDPR Vladimir Zhirinovsky, called positive for Turkey, “the concentration of all power in the hands of the President.”

The day before Recep Tayyip Erdogan made a “gift” for the inauguration: Sunday in Ankara was declared the largest in recent years, the cleaning of the state apparatus, law enforcement agencies, non-governmental organizations and the media, during which a dismissal were more than 18 thousand people suspected of disloyalty to the authorities and links with living in the United States disgraced preacher Fethullah gülen.

The most drastic reduction occurred in the interior Ministry and the army, was also suspended the activities of 12 NGOs, three Newspapers and one TV channel.

Earlier during the campaign to identify the conspirators and the supporters of Fethullah Gulen, began in the country after the coup attempt on 16 July 2016, was arrested more than 50 thousand people have been dismissed or reduced by a further 140 thousand to Implement a new dismissal of the Turkish leader allowed the state of emergency, in recent years podliassie seven times (the last time it happened was April 18). However, on Monday evening in Ankara was announced about cancellation of state of emergency, the introduction of which generated numerous accusations of the Turkish leader the slide towards authoritarianism and the attack on rights and freedoms of citizens, expressed both within the country and abroad.

This decision did not become sensation: plans to abandon the state of emergency, which, in his opinion, is no longer needed Tayyip Erdogan announced shortly after winning the election on June 24. Thus, on the eve of the scheduled for this week, his first trip abroad after re-election President Erdogan fulfilled one of the key demands made by Western community.

The completion of political reform, allowed to concentrate in his hands all power, significantly strengthened the negotiating position of Recep Tayyip Erdogan before his meeting with Western leaders at the NATO summit in Brussels, where the Turkish leader will arrive this Wednesday.

The main task of President Erdogan in Brussels, where he will be able to talk personally with the President of the United States Donald trump nationalistische-American summit in Helsinki, will be the attempt to normalize relations with its partners in the Euro-Atlantic community, which in recent years have continued to deteriorate.

Additional stimulus became Ankara’s plans to purchase Russian anti-aircraft missile system s-400, which the administration of the President of trump considers contrary to the commitments of Turkey to the United States and NATO (see “b” for June 21).

After the presidential elections on 24 June with the visit to Ankara was visited by a group of influential U.S. senators, warned that the purchase of Turkey s-400 could disrupt the supply of her American F-35 fighter. However, in response, the Turkish side hinted that it was ready to normalize relations with NATO to the detriment of military-technical cooperation with Russia. “They say: “You buy s-400, we impose sanctions”. If you impose sanctions, you’ll see our answer,” warned foreign Minister of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu, who said that “the United States does not want to spoil relations with Turkey because of s-400”.

Sergey Strokan

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