The power contest

Obviously some degree of "power contest" between the president and the prime minister cannot be avoided if both of them have a political background and strong aspirations to engrave their name on the list of people who contributed most to the advancement of his nation. And if both of those leaders are "popularly elected" and if both are "politicians" jealous of sharing their "earned power" with anyone else, would it be possible for there not to be some sort of power contest between the two?

Wasn't that what happened when Turgut Özal abandoned his party, became the president and "appointed" Y?ld?r?m Akbulut as both the leader of the then-ruling Motherland Party and as the prime minister? Was it so different than when Süleyman Demirel got himself elevated to the seat of president days after Özal's death and left his True Path Party (DYP) and government to Tansu Çiller? In both examples of strong politicians becoming presidents, Turkey saw that unlike in that famous ?eyh Bedrettin epic poem from Naz?m Hikmet, it was not possible at all "to share everything except the lips of the beloved."

Probably the bigger and stronger the political greed of the politician, the more jealous of power he might be. Özal fought a fierce battle with Mesut Y?lmaz and was close to abandoning the presidency and founding the "New Party" to make a fresh start in politics at the time of his untimely death. Demirel insisted originally that he would not have "three melons" in his arms at the presidency and was "above party politics" as he became the president. But did he manage to stay clear of the changing internal balances in the decaying DYP? In any case, both those two strong parties in Turkish politics waned and eventually disappeared from the political spectrum.

Do...