Erdogan takes on new powers, names son-in-law finance chief
AFP/File / ADEM ALTANThe president now sits at the top of a vertical power structure marked by a slimmed-down government with 16 ministries instead of 26 and multiple bodies reporting to him
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday took on greater powers than any Turkish leader for decades as he was sworn in for a second presidential term, naming his son-in-law to the key post of finance minister in a revamped cabinet.
Erdogan, who has already transformed Turkey in 15 years of rule, took his oath of office in parliament under the new presidential system denounced by opponents as a one-man regime.
Describing the monumental change as a "new beginning", he vowed at a later ceremony at his vast Ankara presidential palace to be the president of all 81 million Turks.
"We have come not to be master but to be servant of our people," he added.
He then unveiled the first cabinet under the new system, appointing his son-in-law Berat Albayrak, 40, to the crucial post of finance minister, in a move that appeared to rattle markets.
Army chief of staff General Hulusi Akar joined the government as defence minister but Mevlut Cavusoglu kept the post of foreign minister.
Fuat Oktay, a former head of Turkey's emergencies agency, has been named as the sole vice president, a newly-created post.
- 'One-man regime' -
Turkish President Office/AFP / KAYHAN OZERThis hand out picture by the Turkish President's Office shows Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan waving as he arrives at the Grand National Assembly of Turkey (TBMM) to take the oath of office in Ankara for his second term
The new system, which dispenses with the office of prime minister, was agreed in a bitterly-fought 2017 referendum narrowly won by the "Yes" camp. The issue continues to polarise public opinion in Turkey.
"A partisan one-man regime starts officially today," said the opposition Cumhuriyet newspaper.
But the pro-government daily Yeni Safak hailed it as an "historic day", saying: "One page is closing in Turkish history and a new page is opening."
The president now sits at the top of a vertical power structure marked by a slimmed-down government with 16 ministries instead of 26 and multiple bodies reporting to him.
In one of the most significant changes, the EU affairs ministry, set up in 2011 to oversee Turkey's faltering bid to join the bloc, is being subsumed into the foreign ministry.
Prime Minister Binali Yildirim now goes down in history as the 27th and final holder of the post in Turkey. He is expected to become speaker of the new parliament.
- 'Leader of multi-polar world' -
AFP/File / ADEM ALTANPrime Minister Binali Yildirim will go down in history as the 27th and final holder of a post that has existed since Mustafa Kemal Ataturk founded modern Turkey, and whose origins date back to the Ottoman Empire
The transition ceremony was overshadowed by a deadly train derailment in northwest Turkey on Sunday that killed 24 people and injured hundreds. Erdogan said that folk dancing and a laser show had been cancelled as a result.
Those attending included Ankara's top allies from Africa, the Middle East and the former Soviet Union but relatively few European figures.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev was present, in a new sign of the warm ties between Ankara and Moscow, as was Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, regarded with disdain by Washington but an ally of Erdogan.
In a tweet, Maduro hailed Erdogan as a "friend of Venezuela and leader of the new multi-polar world."
But Erdogan faces immediate challenges posed by Ankara's faltering bid to join the EU and tensions between the United States and its NATO ally.
Erdogan will this week immediately turn to foreign policy, visiting northern Cyprus and Azerbaijan, followed by more challenging encounters at a NATO summit in Brussels where he will meet US President Donald Trump and other leaders.
- Lira pressured -
The markets were keeping a close eye on the finance ministry, keen to see a steady hand at the helm in a fast-growing economy dogged by double-digit inflation and a widening current account deficit.
The appointment of Albayrak, the husband of Erdogan's elder daughter Esra and formerly energy minister, came as a surprise, with no place for Mehmet Simsek, the former deputy prime minister for the economy trusted by markets.
The Turkish lira lost 3.5 percent in value on the news to trade at 4.73 lira to the dollar.
Ruhsar Pekcan, one of just two women in the cabinet, was named as trade minister.
Hardline Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu keeps his job, while Akar's appointment as defence minister was also a surprise and it remains unclear who will replace him as army chief of staff.
The AKP failed to win a majority in legislative elections and will need support from its allies in the right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) which could push it into more hardline policies.
Erdogan has also pledged to end the state of emergency that has been in place since the failed July 2016 coup and which has seen the biggest purge in the history of modern Turkey.
One day ahead of the inauguration, 18,632 public sector employees were ordered dismissed, including thousands of soldiers and police officers in a new crackdown.
Trump poised to announce US Supreme Court nominee
GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP / TASOS KATOPODISSun shines on the US Supreme Court building in Washington, DC Monday ahead of President Donald Trump's announcement of his nominee for a newly vacant seat on the court
President Donald Trump was poised Monday to nominate a new conservative judge to the Supreme Court, a decision with momentous implications for America on everything from abortion to guns to immigration.
Trump kept the suspense running through the weekend, teasing the announcement for maximum dramatic effect, but by Monday afternoon was reported to have made his pick among a shortlist of four judges, all with solid right-wing credentials.
The decision -- awaited eagerly by his conservative supporters, and with trepidation by his liberal opponents -- was to be announced at 9:00 pm (0100 GMT Tuesday) in a prime time address from the White House.
At stake is nothing less than a paradigm shift on the court, with the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy handing Trump an opportunity to place a decidedly conservative stamp on the bench.
"I have long heard that the most important decision a U.S. President can make is the selection of a Supreme Court Justice," Trump tweeted early Monday, after a weekend spent weighing his decision at his New Jersey golf club.
While Trump has already made one pick for the high court since taking office in January 2017, the vacancy left by Kennedy, announced late last month, has weightier implications.
For years Kennedy often served as the tie-breaking swing vote between conservatives and liberals on the nine-member bench.
The candidates on Trump's shortlist are all steadfast conservatives. They are Brett Kavanaugh, a former adviser to George W. Bush; Raymond Kethledge, a strict interpreter of the US Constitution; Amy Coney Barrett, a devout Catholic and social conservative; and Thomas Hardiman, a staunch gun rights advocate.
All four federal judges have the endorsement of major Republican legal groups, most importantly the powerful Federalist Society. None is older than 53, meaning they could sit on the court for decades, allowing Trump to make a lasting imprint on the nation's laws.
"From the perspective of judicial conservatives, Trump really can't lose here," Josh Blackman, an associate professor at South Texas College of Law, told AFP.
"He could throw a dart on that list" and conservatives would be happy.
- Rush to fill seat -
In recent years the Supreme Court has made landmark decisions on fundamental and often politically charged issues ranging from same-sex marriage, abortion, gun rights, corporate money in elections, and free speech.
GETTY IMAGES NORTH AMERICA/AFP / JUSTIN SULLIVANUS president Donald Trump will nominate a new justice for the Supreme Court who could turn the court deeply conservative for decades
In the coming year the court might have to consider Trump's powers and rights in the investigation into links between his presidential campaign and Russia, and whether he sought to obstruct that probe.
Trump has moved quickly to make a nomination while Republicans hold a bare majority in the Senate, which needs to approve the appointment.
Republican congressional leader Mitch McConnell has reportedly tried to nudge Trump towards one of two candidates -- Hardiman or Kethledge -- seen as presenting fewer obstacles to a Senate confirmation.
Within Republican ranks, Senator Susan Collins has already signalled she could break with her party if Trump taps someone hostile to the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling that guaranteed women's access to abortion.
If the nomination is delayed and Democrats capture an extra seat in the Senate in November elections, Trump could be forced to compromise with liberals in order to fill Kennedy's seat.
- Conservative shortlist -
Trump promised Sunday to choose an "exceptional person" for the post, but some Democrats were already signalling blanket opposition.
"I will oppose the nomination the president will make tonight because it represents a corrupt bargain with the far right, big corporations, and Washington special interests," Senator Bob Casey said.
By Monday Barrett, at 46 the youngest and the only woman of the four, was being widely discounted due to her relative inexperience and her strong views as a social and religious conservative.
AFP / Gal ROMA, John SAEKIUS Supreme Court
Kavanaugh, 53, began his career as a clerk to Kennedy. As a judge on the US Court of Appeals in Washington he has written opinions on some of the nation's most sensitive issues. He recently voiced disagreement with a court decision allowing an undocumented teenage immigrant to get an abortion.
He also has expressed a broad interpretation of what constitutes obstruction of justice, a position which could be risky if the Russia investigation leads to impeachable allegations against Trump.
Kethledge, 51, sits on the Sixth Circuit appeals court. He is seen as an "originalist" -- a conservative school that seeks to interpret the US Constitution based on the thinking of the country's founding leaders, and often takes narrow views in cases of individual rights.
Hardiman, 53, a judge on the federal court in Philadelphia, is less known in terms of his legal philosophy, but has working-class roots that could make him attractive to the American public.
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