In recent speeches, Erdogan has clearly expressed his wish to fulfil more than just a symbolic role and to be "an active president", vowing to use the full extent of his constitutional powers and to participate in day-to-day politics. He has also underlined a partisan approach: "A president cannot be impartial. No president in this country has been neutral. And I won't be an impartial president, either."Mavi Boncuk |
Why Recep Tayyip Erdogan Will Be Turkey's First Directly Elected President
By Soner Cagaptay and Beril Unver
August 7, 2014
Soner Cagaptay is the Beyer Family Fellow and director of the Turkish Research Program at The Washington Institute, and author of "The Rise of Turkey: The Twenty-First Century's First Muslim Power" (http://washin.st/RiseofTurkey), published by Potomac Books. Beril Unver is senior programs officer at the Pacific Council on International Policy in Los Angeles.
Erdogan holds several trump cards that make him the unquestioned front-runner in a landmark election.
When Turkey holds direct presidential elections for the first time on Aug. 10, the people will speak. Turks are eager to be heard following a wave of protests in the last year against Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his ruling Justice and Development Party, or AKP, which were followed by a violent police crackdown. Erdogan faces criticism for his authoritarian leadership style, as well as corruption allegations. Yet it is all but guaranteed that he will be Turkey's first popularly elected president. Why? It is a numbers game.
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