Turkish President Erdogan inaugurates the presidential system and appoints his son-in-law finance minister

ISTANBUL: Turk Tayyip Erdogan inaugurated the new executive presidential system that he had long campaigned for by charging his son-in-law with the economy and promising greater reform of a country. that he dominated for 15 years.

A few hours after being given new powers at a ceremony in the capital of Ankara, Erdogan appointed Berat Albayrak as finance and finance minister of his new government.

The announcement – and the absence of ministers familiar and supportive of the cabinet market – helped to bring down the pound.

Erdogan, the most popular and controversial ruler of Turkey's recent history, has become formally the most powerful leader since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded the Republic on the ruins of Turkey. Ottoman Empire.
While Atatürk was transforming an impoverished nation at the eastern end of Europe into a secular and western republic, Erdogan fought to bring Islamic values ​​back into public life and raise millions. of pious Turks – long ostracized by the secular elite – out of poverty.

"We are leaving behind the system that has cost our country a heavy toll in the political and economic chaos," Erdogan said Monday night.

Under the new system, the post of prime minister has been abolished and the president chooses his own cabinet, regulates ministries and can dismiss officials – without parliamentary approval.

Erdogan said that the powerful executive presidency is critical to boosting economic growth and providing security after a failed military state coup in 2016. But Western allies and rights groups are decrying what they say. They claim to be a growing authoritarianism and a tendency to domination by one man.

As a result of the coup, Turkey, a member of NATO's military alliance and still candidate for membership of the European Union, stopped some 160,000 people, imprisoned journalists and closed dozens of media outlets.

The government says its measures are necessary given the security situation.

Investors worry about what they fear, that is the tightening of Erdogan's monetary policy. An "interest rate enemy" that he himself described, he said he would seek to better control policies in the new system.

In one of three presidential decrees published Tuesday in the official newspaper, it was announced that the president would appoint the governor of the central bank, deputies and members of the monetary policy committee for a four-year period .

It was also announced in the official Gazette that Erdogan had appointed General Yasar Guler commander of land forces as new chief of staff, replacing General Hulusi Akar, appointed Minister of Defense in the new government.