Binali Yildirim: Turkey’s last prime minister?

Campaigning with gusto for a “Yes” vote in Turkey’s referendum on a new constitution, it may seem surprising Prime Minister Binali Yildirim is an impassioned champion of the plan to expand the powers of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Since if the new blueprint is approved, Yildirim’s own job will be axed. Under the draft constitution approved by parliament and set to be put to the people on April 16, the post of prime minister will be extinguished for the first time and replaced by one or more vicepresidents.

Erdogan said in a speech on February 8 the offices of prime minister and president will be merged, creating a single powerful executive bureaucracy under the head of state.

“The people will know who to vote for, who to expect action from, who to bring to account. This person is now the president,” he said.

The abolition of an office that has existed not just since modern Turkey’s foundation in 1923 but also throughout the Ottoman Empire is one of the most radical steps in the new constitution.

Yildirim argues that changes will prevent situations like the squabbling between president Turgut Ozal and premier Suleyman Demirel that marked the political chaos of the early 1990s.

“I am a seaman,” explained Yildirim, a former maritime engineer and director of Istanbul’s ferry company.

“Two captains can sink a ship. There should be only one captain,” he said.

Asli Aydintasbas, fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), said the abolition of the prime minister’s office would not matter if the system was complemented by a powerful judiciary and parliament.

But she said this is not the case: “The forces that are supposed to balance each other out are all combined in the hands of the president.”

“I don’t mind that the prime ministry is abolished,” she said. “What I mind is that the presidency will not have the checks and balances it is supposed to have in a democracy.” The post of prime minister goes back the 14th century with the post of to Ottoman grand vizier (sadrazam) who was equivalent to prime minister and on occasion even more powerful.

The position of top minister remained in place for six centuries until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. When modern Turkey’s founder Mustafa Ataturk became its first president, he made war hero Ismet Inonu his prime minister.

For decades, the post of prime minister was the number one position. Erdogan himself became Turkey’s undisputed leader as prime minister from 2003-2014.

The president has some powers under the existing constitution but it became traditional not to exercise them.

Yildirim in public always portrays himself as a devoted servant happy to fall on his sword for the sake of the presidential system. If agreed, the new constitution and abolition of prime minister’s office would come into force after November 2019 elections.

It is likely that Yildirim will become one of likely two vice-presidents, with the other possibly Devlet Bahceli, leader of the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).

“The referendum is the last ditch before Turkey formally adopts a one-man-rule system,” said Marc Pierini, visiting scholar at Carnegie Europe.

“If approved, the new constitution would introduce drastic changes to the country’s governance.”