Turkish politics enters critical week to designate next PM, ministers

The coming 10 days will mark an important milestone in Turkish politics with a complete overhaul of the country’s executive cadres including a new prime minister and ministers under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s presidency. Ankara politics is heavily focused on the composition of the next government, with Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu regarded as the strongest candidate to succeed President-elect Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

The Justice and Development Party (AKP) will hold its Central Executive Board (MYK) meeting on Aug. 21 to designate the chairman, just days before its extraordinary congress on Aug. 27, during which this designated figure will be officially elected as Erdoğan’s successor. Erdoğan will take office on Aug. 28 and is likely to give a mandate for the formation of the next government on Aug. 29.

As stated by Yalçın Akdoğan, Erdoğan’s closest advisor, the government to be formed following the presidential handover will not be a temporary one. “The designated figure will not be a temporary prime minister. Erdoğan is an experienced politician; he won’t take a step that would bring about a failure in the next parliamentary elections. We’ll go to polls as the same movement with the same cadres and the same spirit,” Akdoğan stressed in an interview with daily Akşam on Aug. 17. “Once a name is designated as the chairman, we will all stand behind him.”

Akdoğan’s words indicate that the Justice and Development Party (AKP) sees the handover in the party leadership as a new beginning in reaching its objectives. “We’ll live our golden years between 2015 and 2019,” he added.

The AKP government’s new beginning under...