Headline August 04, 2018/ '' 'FORMIDABLE TURKISH PRESIDENT' ''

'' 'FORMIDABLE TURKISH PRESIDENT' ''

Even before President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey was inaugurated, he began elbowing his way into the very front ranks of the globe's strongmen.

Hours before taking the oath of office some many weeks ago - after 15 years already in power -President Erdogan published a 143-page decree changing the way almost every government department and public body in the country operates.

In the days since, he has issued several equally lengthy decrees and presidential decisions, centralizing power and giving him the ability to exert control in nearly all areas of life with almost unchecked authority.

At a moment when the democratic systems around the world are under increasing pressure, Mr. Erdogan, who was re-elected in June, is among those leaders, like Vladimir V. Putin of Russia and  Viktor Orban of Hungary, who are using the levers of democracy to vastly expand their authority.

Among the changes Mr. Erdogan has put in place under the new presidential system are these

.- The Prime Minster's office has been abolished.
-  The military has been brought under firmer civilian control. :
.- The president will draft the budget and choose judges and many top officials;
.- The president can dismiss Parliament and call new elections at will;
.- The president appoints the head of the National Intelligence Agency, the Religious Affairs Directorate and the Central Bank, as well as ambassadors, governors and university rectors, among others;
.- Virtually none of the presidents appointments require confirmation.

NONE of the amendments Mr. Erdogan decreed were subject to public debate. The vast accumulation of power fulfills Turkey's shift from a parliamentary system to presidential one that was narrowly approved by voters in a referendum last year.

The voluminous decrees, analysts say, promise months of administrative upheaval as agencies are abolished and government employees reassigned.

Critics have voiced concern at the lack of checks on the president's increased powers.

''The state is being reorganized around Tayyip Erdogan,'' the columnist Asli Aydintasbas recently wrote in the secular opposition newspaper Cumhuriyet.

Many of the changes, analysts point out, merely formalize what was already the case : It is Mr. Erdogan who makes the decisions. But the consolidation of his power is far-reaching.

Mr. Erdogan has also amended the counterterrorism law in expectation of lifting the state of emergency, which expired last Thursday and was put in place two years ago after a failed military coup against him.

The new measures bring the powerful Turkish military firmly under civilian control - a step that the  president says is in with the changes required under the European Union's accession process.

The block has dangled admission before Turkey for years.

The Honor and  Serving of the latest Global Operational Research and Thinking on Great Leaders and History continues. The World Students Society thanks author and researcher Carlotta Gall.

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