Turkey’s president gives Hitler example in call for powers boost

“What is important is that a presidential system should not disturb the people in its implementation”, he said.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office on Friday hit back at media reports that quoted the president as giving Nazi Germany as an example of a presidential system.

Speaking at a press conference late on Thursday shortly after his return from a trip to Saudi Arabia, Erdoğan was asked whether a presidential system could be adopted while keeping the country’s unitary structure.

Erdogan wants to change Turkey’s constitution “to turn the ceremonial role of president into that of a chief executive, a Turkish version of the system in the United States, France or Russia”, Reuters said. “You can see it when you look at Hitler’s Germany”, the head of state replied, according to Reuters.

Mr Erdogan made the remarks in Istanbul when questioned by a journalist on how the new system would operate. Critics fear that a presidential system would give far-reaching powers to Erdogan, who has already displayed an increasingly authoritarian tendency.

Claiming that most developed countries are governed by a presidential system – though this is not actually the case – he said in January: “It shows this [system] produces [better] results”. The country has been having a very bipolar stance on Facebook – while they threaten to ban it at first, President Erdogan then praised Mark Zuckerberg, and now a teen has been arrested for posting insults to the president on Facebook.

However, when he was prevented constitutionally from standing as prime minister for a fourth election past year, Mr Erdogan stood for the presidency instead, and has used the position to continue his aggressive Islamist agenda.

It reached agreement with the main opposition Republican People’s party (CHP) on Wednesday to revive efforts to forge a new constitution.