Erdoğan: Presidency a beginning, not a goodbye

Turkey’s President-elect Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has made it clear that he will not step back from playing the lead on the country’s political stage when he takes office at the presidential palace on Aug. 28.

Speaking to thousands of supporters at an extraordinary congress in the capital Ankara on Aug. 27, where he will formally hand over the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) leadership to Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, Erdoğan described the event as “just a beginning.”

“This is not at all meant to be a change of mission. It is just a change of name and it is never a farewell,” he said, addressing people gathered outside the Ankara Arena Sports Hall.

“I want you to know that this is a Fatiha [the opening verse of the Quran]. It is a beginning, a new beginning,” he added, underlining that he was not “saying goodbye to the people.”
 
“We will continue serving [the people] in the same way,” said Erdoğan, who has consistently vowed to take up an executive role in the presidential palace, not the largely ceremonial role that has so far been cast for the head of the state through the 91 years of the Republic of Turkey.

“God willing we will give Davutoğlu the mandate to form the government tomorrow, and the new Cabinet will be announced on Friday [Aug. 29],” he also said.

The president-elect was accompanied by his spouse, Emine Erdoğan, as he addressed the crowd. Later, the couple joined Davutoğlu and his spouse, Sare Davutoğlu, who had already arrived at the hall where they had listened to Erdoğan’s speech on a big screen.