Erdogan hails new era in Turkey as he tightens his grip on power

TURKEY was “entering a new era” said Recep Tayyip Erdoğan as he was sworn in as the country’s first executive president, giving him sweeping new powers.

Mr Erdoğan had led Turkey for 15 years but the constitutional changes that came into effect yesterday when he took the oath of office gave him the authority to rule by presidential decree and to assert control over the judiciary, which critics claim will lead to the country becoming authoritarian.

It came after a bitterly fought referendum in 2017, which Mr Erdoğan nar- rowly won amid allegations of vote rigging. He defeated a coalition of opposition parties in a snap election last month to hold on to power.

Mr Erdoğan told members of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) ahead of his swearing in: “With the power granted to us by the new presidential system, we will get quicker and stronger results.” He has ruled largely by fiat since 2016 when he imposed a state of emergency on the country in response to a failed coup attempt. The president promised to lift the emergency conditions later this month but in the hours before his swearing in, he issued two more edicts. One was to dismiss 18,000 civil servants, half of them from the state police.

Around 180,000 state employees have been sacked for alleged ties to the coup plotters and more than 60,000 arrested.

The second decree was to remove term limits for the governor of Turkey’s central bank, suggesting Mr Erdoğan may be looking to curb the bank’s independence and install a loyalist permanently in the office of governor.

The Turkish lira has lost around 20 per cent of its value in the last six months. Mr Erdoğan accused “shadowy forces” of trying to impose high interest rates and hinted he would take more direct control of the bank with his extended powers.

Western leaders were scarce at the ceremony at the presidential palace in Ankara, but a number of authoritarian leaders were present, including Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela and Viktor Orbán of Hungary.

Dmitry Medvedev, the prime minister of Russia, also attended, alongside Silvio Berlusconi, the former Italian prime minister.

Mr Erdoğan will attend this week’s Nato summit in Brussels amid strained relations between Turkey and other members of the military alliance.