ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey’s longtime President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is due to be sworn in for his third term on Saturday.
All eyes are on the announcement of his new cabinet – its composition should indicate whether there will be a continuation of unorthodox economic policies or a return to more conventional ones amid a cost of living crisis.
Erdogan, 69, won a new five-year term in a runoff of the presidential race last week, which could extend his rule of 20 years in the key NATO country that straddles Europe and Asia, in a quarter of a century. The country of 85 million people controls NATO’s second-largest army, hosts millions of refugees and played a crucial role in brokering a deal that allowed the shipment of grain from Ukraine, averting a global food crisis.
Erdogan is due to take an oath in parliament, followed by an inauguration ceremony at his sprawling palace complex. He is due to reveal the members of his new cabinet at a separate ceremony later on Saturday.
Dozens of foreign dignitaries travel to attend the ceremony, including NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and Carl Bildt, a prominent former Swedish prime minister. They are expected to pressure Erdogan to drop his country’s objections to Sweden joining the military alliance – which requires the unanimous approval of all allies.
Turkey accuses Sweden of being too soft on Kurdish militants and other groups that Turkey considers terrorists. NATO wants to bring Sweden into the alliance when allied leaders meet in Lithuania on July 11-12, but Turkey and Hungary have yet to approve the bid.
Erdogan is sworn in amid a host of national challenges ahead, including a struggling economy, pressure to repatriate millions of Syrian refugees and the need to rebuild after a devastating earthquake in February that killed 50,000 people and razed entire towns in the south of the country.
The country is grappling with an inflation-fueled cost-of-living crisis that peaked at 85% in October before falling back to 44% last month. The Turkish currency has lost more than 10% of its value against the dollar since the beginning of the year.
Critics attribute the turmoil to Erdogan’s policy of lowering interest rates to promote growth, which flies in the face of conventional economic thinking that calls for raising rates to fight inflation.
According to unconfirmed media reports, Erdogan plans to reappoint former finance minister and respected deputy prime minister Mehmet Simsek as head of the economy. This decision would mean a return of the country – which is the 19th largest economy in the world according to the World Bank – to more orthodox economic policies.
In power as prime minister and then as president since 2003, Erdogan is already Turkey’s longest-serving leader. He consolidated his power through constitutional changes that transformed the Turkish presidency from a largely ceremonial role into a powerful office. Critics say his second decade in office was marred by brutal democratic backsliding, including the erosion of institutions such as the media and the judiciary and the jailing of opponents and critics.
Erdogan beat opposition challenger Kemal Kilicdaroglu in a runoff election held on May 28, after narrowly failing to secure an outright victory in a first round of voting on May 14. Kilicdaroglu promised to put Turkey on a more democratic path and improve relations with the West. International observers deemed the elections free but not fair.
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Kiper reported from Bodrum, Turkey.