Erdogan Puts Final Touches on Dictatorship
Turkey
presumably still hoping to accede to the European Union?
24
May, 2016
Originally
appeared at Zero
Hedge
When
the news hit on May 5 that Turkey's Prime Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu would
unexpectedly stand down from
his post as a result of sharply escalating fighting behind the scenes
over president Tayyip Erdogan's relentless attempt to rule Turkey
with virtually no checks and balances, the market was not happy, and
the volatility of the Turkish Lira soared the most in the past
decade.
Since then the Turkish market has modestly tamed, even if the Erdogan's push for supreme control has done anything but, and during today's congress of Turkey's AKP, Erdogan confirmed an impotent lapdog, Binali Yildirim - a close ally for two decades and a co-founder of the ruling AK Party - as his new prime minister on Sunday, which as Reuters explained was "a big step towards the stronger presidential powers [Erdogan] has long sought." In plain English, Turkey is unofficially a dictatorship, in which Erdogan is president only in title and in reality a supreme despot as there is no longer anyone who can politically challenge the president.
Concurrently,
Erdogan also accepted the resignation of outgoing Prime Minister
Ahmet Davutoglu on Sunday, hours after AKP elected Yildirim as his
replacement.
In
a speech to AKP delegates who earlier elected him party leader at a
special congress, Yildirim, transport minister for most of the past
decade and a half, left
no doubt that he would prioritise the policies closest to Erdogan's
heart.
His main aim, he said, was to deliver a new constitution and create
an executive presidency, a change Erdogan says will bring stability
to the NATO member state of 78 million, but which opponents fear will
herald greater authoritarianism.
Yildirim,
60, said constitutional change was a necessity to legitimize the
existing situation, tacit acknowledgment that Erdogan has extended
the traditionally ceremonial role of the Turkish presidency."The
most important mission we have today is to legalize the de facto
situation, to bring to an end this confusion by changing the
constitution," he
said. "The new constitution will be on an executive presidential
system."
Erdogan
meets with incoming Prime Minister Binali Yildirim
As
if proof were needed of where power in the party lies, delegates
remained standing through a message from Erdogan read out at the
start of the congress. Yildirim vowed that, under his leadership, the
AKP's way would be "Erdogan's
way".
Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag said Erdogan was the party's one
leader.
He
has made clear he will pursue two of Erdogan's biggest priorities -
the executive presidency and the fight against militants of the
outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) in the largely Kurdish
southeast. "They are asking us when the anti-terror operations
will end. I am announcing hereby that operations will end when all
our citizens are safe," Yildirim said in an emotional speech.
"Operations
will continue without pause until the bloody-handed terrorist
organization PKK ends its armed actions."
Despite
Erdogan's attempts to silence any journalistic criticism by sending
his biggest public detractors to prison, some dares to voice their
displeasure with what is happening inside the NATO member and
Europe's close Asian ally:
"If
they can succeed, this will be a transition period for the executive
presidency," journalist Abdulkadir Selvi, who is seen as close
to AKP, told Reuters.
And
now that the Turkish premier figurehead is known, investors' eyes
shift to the future of Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek, who
according to Reuters is seen as one of the remaining anchors of
market confidence. Erdogan, who favors consumption-led growth, has
repeatedly railed against high interest rates in Turkey, saying they
cause inflation, a stance at odds with mainstream economics. Without
Simsek, investors fear, it will be less likely that the government
will deliver on promises to liberalize the labor market, encourage
savings and bring in more private investment.
Installing
a puppet PM was not all Erdogan did in this busy week: just to make
sure Erdogan can use the law to crack down on any of
his political opponents, last Friday Erdogan's puppet parliament
agreed to strip its members of immunity, a move which will be used by
Erdogan to prosecute members of the pro-Kurdish HDP, parliament's
third-biggest party, as well as anyone else he choose to take down.
He
accuses the HDP of being the political wing of the Kurdish Workers'
Party (PKK) which has waged a three-decade insurgency against the
state. The HDP denies such links and says its parliamentary presence
could be all but wiped out if prosecutions go head.
In
other words, if any MP says or does something that the president
disagrees with, said member of parliament will promptly find
themselves under arrest and behind bars: a strong deterrent never to
say or do anything that would displease the ascendant tyrant.
It
is this stripping of immunity that Germany's Chancellor Angela
Merkel said
she would discuss with Erdogan on
Monday when the two meet tomorrow in Istanbul, voicing disquiet at a
measure meant to sideline the pro-Kurdish opposition.
Erdogan
meets with Merkel in Ankara, Turkey February 8, 2016
However,
it's not as if Merkel has any leverage or strings to pull. Quite the
opposite: Merkel is facing accusations at home that she has become
too accommodating of Erdogan as she tries to secure a European Union
deal with Ankara to stem the flow of refugees from Turkey into
Europe, the bulk of whom have gone to Germany.
Worse,
the accusations are 100% accurate, because as of this moment the
person who dictates the future of Europe is neither in Greece, nor in
Great Britain, but is not even located in Europe in the first place
(although that may change soon). This guy.
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