Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been arguing for a new executive presidential system almost daily since he became president in 2014. Most who pay attention to this know that Erdogan’s main goal is to become the Sultan of his ‘New Turkey,’ which is simply the revived Ottoman Empire that he is aspiring to resurrect by 2023.
In fact earlier this year when Erdogan and the AKP were celebrating the “real birthday” of the Ottoman Empire, these signs were displayed in Istanbul during the celebration:
The sign reads “Yeniden Dirilis, Yeniden Yukselis” which translated means “Resurrection Again, Rising Again.” It couldn’t be more clear that Erdogan wants to resurrect the Ottoman Empire and do away with the 20th century’s new map that was created by the Sykes-Picot agreement that effectively divided the Ottoman Empire.
Erdogan, whose AKP recently won big in the election, is continuing to push hard for this new presidential system and his AKP advocates are out in the media doing all they can to convince voters that this is absolutely what Turkey needs.
One such advocate is Hayrettin Karaman, a man who is not only said to be deeply respected by Erdogan, but has been a close advisor to him and his chief Islamist Mufti for issuing Fatwas since he was the mayor of Istanbul.
In one of his latest articles at the pro-Erdogan paper called Yeni Safak, Karaman compares this new presidential system to the Islamic caliphate system and argues the new president of this system would be like the Caliph and all the people would pledge allegiance to him (translated by Walid Shoebat):
“During the debate on the presidential system, here is what everyone must do so while taking into account the direction of the world’s national interest and the future of the country and not focus on the party or a particular person. What this [presidential system] looks like is the Islamic caliphate system in terms of its mechanism. In this system the people choose the leader, the Caliph/Prince, and then all will pledge the Bay’ah [allegiance] and then the chosen president appoints the high government bureaucracy and he cannot interfere in the judiciary where the Committee will audit legislation independent of the president.”
Indeed Today’s Zaman points out that this “Prince” Karaman is referring to is also translated as “Caliph”:
In a bid to bolster President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s push for a switch to an executive presidential system, a theologian known for handing out Islamic legal opinion in line with the government’s ideology has claimed the Islamic political system is similar to an executive presidential system, referring to the president under such a system as a “caliph.”
So there you have it. Erdogan’s own chief Mufti of Islamic legal opinions has basically just declared that in this new presidential system that Erdogan will be the Caliph and the people voting for him will all pledge allegiance to him as Caliph.
Walid Shoebat writes much more on this here if you want to dive in deeper.
I will add that Erdogan and his Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu aren’t wasting any time and are planning a showdown with the Parliament before the summer of 2016 on shifting to this new presidential system:
Signals came from Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, who asked for a meeting with each and every leader of the three opposition parties. The reason is, as expressed by his office, to discuss the Constitution and reforms.
The leaders of both the main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) and the pro-Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) said they are ready to meet Davutoğlu. The third party, the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), has not at the time of writing responded to the offer.
All the opposition leaders know what the real agenda item on Davutoğlu’s mind is. The prime minister has left no doubt that the top issue is the search for ways and means to shift to a presidential system, disguised in his party’s persistent rhetoric as a “new constitution.” This is how President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Cabinet and the Justice and Development Party (AKP) perceives it, and all roads are inevitably leading to a new showdown, apparently planned to take place before the summer of 2016.
Who knows what manner of blackmail and coercion Erdogan and his pals will use to make sure this ‘showdown’ goes their way. And if it does go their way, Erdogan could be the new Caliph before Obama is even out of office. Let the bowing begin.
