Respected economist Mehmet Simsek is Turkey’s new finance minister. That was the most important appointment that President Erdogan announced on Saturday during the presentation of his new cabinet. Simsek was highly regarded by foreign investors when he was Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister between 2009 and 2018. His return is a signal that Erdogan is ready to change course economically after years of erratic and unorthodox policies that have led to skyrocketing inflation and brought Turkey to the brink of a balance of payments crisis.
Speaking at the swearing-in ceremony, Simsek said the main goal of the new government is to increase social welfare. According to him, Turkey has no choice but to return to “rational grounds” to ensure the predictability of economic policies. “Reducing inflation to single digits over the medium term, increasing predictability, and accelerating a structural transformation that will reduce the current account deficit are vital for our country,” he said on Sunday. his first press conference. The question is whether Simsek will be given enough space to put words into action.
Read also: Is Erdogan changing the economic course after his election victory?
The rest of the cabinet also consists of capable technocrats, including a number of notable names. One of them is the new foreign minister, Hakan Fidan. He replaces Mevlüt Cavusoglu, one of Turkey’s longest-serving top diplomats. Fidan is a confidant of Erdogan. He started as an adviser when Erdogan was still prime minister. Since 2010, he was the director of the MIT intelligence service, which under his leadership took a more active role in foreign policy. Especially after the failed coup in 2016, when MIT kidnapped dozens of suspects from other countries together with the ministry. Fidan also plays a prominent role behind the scenes in the Syria dossier.
New constitution
“By appointing leading people to conduct economic and foreign policy, Erdogan has freed himself to focus on a domestic agenda: drafting a new constitution,” Soner Cagaptay, director of the Washington Institute’s research program Turkey, tweeted. for Near East Policy. In his speech after being sworn in as president on Saturday, Erdogan promised to draft a new constitution. “We will save our democracy from the current constitution, which is a product of the coup [van 1980]and strengthen it with a libertarian, civic and inclusive constitution,” he stated.
Erdogan has freed himself to focus on a domestic agenda: drafting a new constitution
Soner Cagaptay Washington Institute for Near East Policy
As interior minister, Erdogan elected an experienced bureaucrat: Ali Yerlikaya. He was governor of the provinces of Sirnak (2007-2010), Agri (2010-2012), Tekirdag (2012-2015), Gaziantep (2015-2018) and Istanbul (since 2018). Yasar Güler was appointed Minister of Defense. Güler is a professional soldier who has served in the military for nearly half a century. He was appointed Chief of General Staff in 2018 after his predecessor Hulusi Akar became Defense Minister. He was the commander of the armed forces during the Turkish military operations in northern Syria in 2019 and 2020, and later in northern Iraq. The only woman in the new cabinet is Minister of Family Affairs Mahinur Özdemir Göktas, who was born in Belgium and was a parliamentarian for the Christian Democrats in Brussels.
The notable absentees from the new government are: Süleyman Soylu, the popular, nationalist interior minister, known for his anti-Western diatribes full of conspiracy theories, and who is said to be doing shady business with underworld figures. And Hulusi Akar, who was taken hostage as chief of the general staff by the coup plotters in 2016, refused to declare martial law, and for his loyalty was rewarded by Erdogan with the appointment as defense minister in 2018. Both have a good place on the electoral list and elected to the new parliament.