Turkey’s autocratic President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has removed the words “Republic of” from “President of the Republic of Turkey” from his title on Twitter, adding his “Justice and Development Party (AKP) Chairman” title to “President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan,” Sözcü daily reported on Monday.
Erdoğan was elected the new chairman of the AKP in May after a 998-day absence from the party, during the party’s third extraordinary congress held at the Ankara Sports Hall. Erdoğan received the votes of 1,414 party members in an election in which he was the only candidate.
Before the election, Erdoğan reshuffled the AKP’s Central Decision and Executive Board (MKYK), with 19 members of the 50-seat board changed. Prime Minister Binali Yıldırım, who handed over the party leadership to Erdoğan, became “acting chairman” of the MKYK after a change to the AKP bylaws.
Debates over the regime in Turkey have been on the agenda since constitutional amendments bringing an executive presidency were approved in a referendum on April 16. “Now we are founding a new state. Like it or not, the founding leader of this new state is Tayyip Erdoğan,” said Ayhan Oğan, a former member of the Central Decision and Administration Board (MKYK) of the AKP during a program aired by CNN Türk.
A ruling AKP deputy, Metin Külünk, said on January 13 that the switch in Turkey to a presidential system would disable the “bureaucratic oligarchy” in the country and take revenge for the last 200 years.
Claiming the Republic of Turkey had come to an end, another AKP deputy, Tülay Babuşçu, said in 2015 that the” 90-year-long commercial break of a 600-year-old empire is now over.” (SCF with turkishminute.com)
