President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan inspects the ceremonial guard upon his arrival to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, in Ankara, July 07, 2018. (AA Photo)
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan inspects the ceremonial guard upon his arrival to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, in Ankara, July 07, 2018. (AA Photo)
The first presidential decree will be issued Monday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said Saturday, adding that the new cabinet will be revealed at 09:00 p.m. local time the same day, right after the presidential oath-taking ceremony and another ceremony that will switch the country to a executive presidency model.
Erdoğan arrived in the parliament on Saturday for the deputies’ oath-taking ceremony, which is expected to be the longest ever as the number of deputies has increased from 550 to 600.
Before the ceremony, Erdoğan addressed the parliamentary group of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party). In his speech, Erdoğan said that the new cabinet will hold its first meeting on Friday.
Erdoğan said that Turkey is determined to eradicate the terror threat. “We won’t stop until we completely wipe off terror from our borders. The operations will continue until the PKK terror group is removed from Qandil and if needed from Sinjar,” he said.
“We are observing that the powers which have been supporting terror groups in our region for a long time have understood Turkey’s decisiveness in the war against terror, and have started to seek ways of reconciliation,” he added, in reference to the deal between Turkey and the U.S. to jointly control Manbij district in northern Syria and the removal of PKK terrorist group’s Syrian offshoot People’s Protection Forces (YPG).
“We will take our country much further by solving the structural problems of our economy, starting with the current account deficit, inflation and high interest rates,” he added.
Following Erdoğan’s speech, the AK Party parliamentary group voted to choose Amasya deputy Naci Bostancı as its chairman and Istanbul deputy Mehmet Muş, Çanakkale deputy Bülent Turan, Denizli deputy Cahit Özkan, Tokat deputy Özlem Zengin and Çankırı deputy Emin Akbaşoğlu as deputy group chairpersons in a closed session.
Istanbul deputy Mustafa Şentop was also elected as deputy parliament speaker. The parliament is expected to elect a speaker on Thursday, and then goes on holiday between July 15 and October 1. Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım is expected to be nominated by the AK Party.
Turkish deputies are scheduled to convene at 2 p.m. (1100 GMT) on Saturday to take their oaths of office in the 600-seat parliament, two weeks after presidential and parliamentary elections on June 24.
Incumbent President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won re-election on June 24, gaining also the expanded powers of an executive presidency, including the ability to rule by decree, as passed in a constitutional referendum on April 16, 2017. Erdoğan becomes both the head of state and government, with the prime minister’s post now abolished under the new system.
