As many of you already know, Turkey’s former prime minister is trying to consolidate power into his new position as president. The position of president in Turkey has always been more of a ceremonial position, but President Erdogan now seeks to transform the position given that he can’t be prime minister any longer because of term limits. And he’s been making the case for this over and over since he became president.
Even when Erdogan was prime minister, many argued he acted like a dictator and many now see this move by Erdogan as a way to become a dictator, given that his Muslim Brotherhood AK Party seeks to rewrite the constitution after the elections this year.
Now Erdogan was talking with reporters on a flight in the last day or so and was again making the case that the presidency must be changed. Here’s a few things he said:
I believe that the presidential system will reinforce Turkey’s transformation process from being a country whose agenda is set by other countries to a country that sets the agenda. This is as sure as two and two is four. The biggest advantage that the presidential system will give us will be the removal of the cacophony. It will have an important effect on decision-making processes. I think speeding this process up will bring about results. We would be deceiving ourselves if we thought that we have a prompt decision-making process at the moment.
Removal of cacophony? Sounds like a lot of poppycock to me. Everything was fine while he was prime minister, that is until he realized he was going to be term-limited. The ‘cacophony’ argument is a phony argument. The only way for decision making to get more ‘prompt’ is for him to be the only one making the decisions. Dictator anyone?
Erdogan says he wants a presidential system, but he hasn’t decided on which type. He suggests it could be like our presidential system or like the one in France, or maybe a different type. But here’s what he says about ours when asked this question: “There are those who argue that the presidential system will eliminate check and balances and drag the country into an anti-democratization process.”
On the contrary, checks and balances in the presidential system do not exist in our current system. For example, Barack Obama cannot take a step if the House of Representatives or the Senate do not authorize him, in a fiscal decision or anything else. He can’t sell a helicopter [to a country] if he cannot pass it [through the House of Representatives and the Senate]. Could he sort out Obamacare? Everything went upside down even after he thought he had done it!
Um, has he met Barack Obama? Erdogan is totally playing these people. He makes it sound like Obama has no power whatsoever unless the Congress gives it to him. While we all know that isn’t true in the least, Erdogan pretends that if he adopted our presidential system he would be completely checked by his parliament. LIES. Erdogan’s AK Party has a majority in the unicameral parliament and seeks to enlarge that majority in elections this year. Even if he were bound by his parliament, they are his party and agree with him. They want the new Ottoman caliphate. They are Islamists. And once they rewrite the constitution later this year, who knows how much power they will give him.
And remember what the King of Jordan said about Erdogan back in 2013?
Abdullah is wary of Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, whose Justice and Development Party is, he believes, merely promoting a softer-edged version of Islamism. (“Erdogan once said that democracy for him is a bus ride,” Abdullah reports. “ ‘Once I get to my stop, I’m getting off.’ ”) He sees Erdogan as a more restrained and more savvy version of Mohamed Morsi, who set back Muslim Brotherhood’s cause in Egypt by making a premature play for absolute power. “Instead of the Turkish model, taking six or seven years—being an Erdogan—Morsi wanted to do it overnight,” the king said.
It’s been Erdogan’s plan from the beginning to seek absolute power. And he’s just about there.