*ANKARA – President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday took on greater powersthan any Turkish leader for decades as he was sworn in for a secondpresidential term, naming his son-in-law to the key post of financeminister in a revamped cabinet.*
Erdogan, who has already transformed Turkey in 15 years of rule, took hisoath of office in parliament under the new presidential system denounced byopponents as a one-man regime.
Describing the monumental change as a “new beginning”, he vowed at a laterceremony at his vast Ankara presidential palace to be the president of all81 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 hisson-in-law Berat Albayrak, 40, to the crucial post of finance minister, ina move that appeared to rattle markets.
Army chief of staff General Hulusi Akar joined the government as defenceminister but Mevlut Cavusoglu kept the post of foreign minister.
Fuat Oktay, a former head of Turkey’s emergencies agency, has been named asthe sole vice president, a newly-created post.
*‘One-man regime’*
The new system, which dispenses with the office of prime minister, wasagreed 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 oppositionCumhuriyet 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 aslimmed-down government with 16 ministries instead of 26 and multiplebodies reporting to him.
In one of the most significant changes, the EU affairs ministry, set up in2011 to oversee Turkey’s faltering bid to join the bloc, is being subsumedinto the foreign ministry.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim now goes down in history as the 27th andfinal holder of the post in Turkey. He is expected to become speaker of thenew parliament.
*‘Leader of multi-polar world’*
The transition ceremony was overshadowed by a deadly train derailment innorthwest Turkey on Sunday that killed 24 people and injured hundreds.Erdogan said that folk dancing and a laser show had been cancelled as aresult.
Those attending included Ankara’s top allies from Africa, the Middle Eastand the former Soviet Union but relatively few European figures.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was present, in a new sign of thewarm ties between Ankara and Moscow, as was Venezuelan President NicolasMaduro, regarded with disdain by Washington but an ally of Erdogan. -APP/AFP