Turkey: Erdogan to revive bid for executive president

Eighteen people were killed in clashes with the military in southeastern Turkey on Thursday, lifting this week’s death toll to nearly 40 in the mainly Kurdish area and dampening prospects for a ceasefire.

Akdogan underlined that the elements that had poisoned the process before must be taken out before the settlement talks put back on its tracks. The results were widely described as “shocking” because no opinion poll, or Turkish or Western observer or analyst, expected or predicted it. The campaign was criticised by an observers’ team from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) as “unfair” and characterised by “too much violence and fear”, while the worldwide Election Observer Mission of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said a few contestants had not been able to campaign freely, and “voters’ access to a plurality of views and information” had been restricted.

The pressing economic challenges are another major front the new government in Turkey has to battle.

Also, the law on the two parliamentary terms, which prohibited the AKP candidates from standing as MPs more than twice, had been cancelled.

The chronic current account deficit is stubbornly still high, suggesting the need for structural reforms to address the underlying fundamentals that cause it.

It is no secret that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants a different political system in Turkey, which would allow him to have important executive powers in his arsenal. The government has failed to reach its growth target every year since 2012, and the global Monetary Fund predicts 2.9% growth next year and 3.5% by 2020.

“We will learn the answer soon”, he remarked. The Turkish lira is up 3% against the dollar after plummeting by 25% over the course of the year. Turnout was a convincing 87 percent among the 54 million people eligible to vote.

Mr. Erdogan appealed to opposition parties to aid in producing a democratic charter in parliament’s next session, warning his political rivals that voters would punish them at elections in four years if they try to block an AKP-led effort.

“I hope they will sit down at the table and solve this issue”, he said, adding that he had discussed it at a meeting with Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Tuesday. The HDP and other Kurdish groups have called for a parliamentary commission to oversee new peace negotiations, but AK has yet to respond. “It is still valid today”, he said.

He said as a country with actively developing economy and policy, Turkey needs new constitution. In fact, the outcome is seen as personal victory for the President.

But since the 2008 financial crisis, and especially since the 2013 Gezi Park protests in Istanbul, during which Erdogan cracked down on perceived opponents in full view of the world, he has become increasingly autocratic.

The prosecutors said there is also strong evidence that the cell was responsible for the Suruç suicide bombing on July 20 that killed more than 30 pro-Kurdish activists.

In order for these amendments to the constitution to pass in the Turkish parliament, two-thirds of the members of parliament (MPs) have to be in agreement – but in in order to call for a plebiscite on the constitutional changes, only three-fifths of the parliament is needed.