Ankara
Erdogan sworn in as President of Türkiye
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan takes the oath. photo
© Presidential Office of Türkiye/dpa
More than 30 heads of state attended the ceremony. During the swearing-in, members of the opposition parties expressed their protest.
Re-elected Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been sworn in for a new five-year term. He will adhere to the values of the secular republic and protect human rights, it said in the oath that the 69-year-old took on Saturday afternoon in the capital Ankara.
Erdogan received applause from his AK party and its partners, while members of the opposition parties flouted the rules and did not stand up in protest. The ceremony ended with a 101 gun salute.
According to the state news agency Anadolu, the swearing-in ceremony was attended by more than 30 heads of state, including from South Africa, Venezuela, Pakistan and Libya. According to NATO, Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg also traveled to Ankara.
The new cabinet
After being sworn in, Erdogan reorganized most of his cabinet. He appointed the economist Mehmet Simsek, who was well known in the financial markets, as finance minister. Erdogan’s longtime confidante, secret service chief Hakan Fidan, will become the new foreign minister. Mevlut Cavusoglu, who has been Turkey’s foreign minister for almost a decade, is no longer part of the new cabinet.
Turkey is currently struggling with massive inflation of officially around 44 percent. Experts also blame Erdogan’s policy, which has so far held on to low interest rates, contrary to economic logic, in order to combat inflation.
Simsek, on the other hand, is considered a representative of an orthodox financial and economic policy – it is expected that he will give up the controversial low-interest policy. Simsek was previously finance minister under Erdogan, but was dismissed in 2018 after the transition to the presidential system.
Erdogan also appointed chief of staff Yasar Güler as defense minister, and the new interior minister is former Istanbul governor Ali Yerlikaya. The only woman in the cabinet is the new family minister, Mahinur Özdemir Göktas.
Erdogan was confirmed as president in a runoff election last Sunday with a good 52 percent of the vote. By May 14, his AK party and its partners had already won a majority in parliament. The election was considered unfair because of the AKP’s and Erdogan’s control over state resources and the country’s media.