Turkey: Erdogan’s radical changes in the cabinet and the four “key” persons

THE Recep Tayyip Erdogan was sworn in on Saturday as the new president of Turkey, with composition of the cabinet to include radical changes, as out of a total of 18 members, only two remained in their positions. They are the Minister of Health, Fahrettin Koca, and the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy.

The specific choices confirmed the assessment of the state-run TRT that Erdogan wants to start from a different basis relations Turkey with Greece. In fact, a journalist noted that “in the case of the re-election of Kyriakos Mitsotakis, there will be continuity in diplomatic relations with Greece. He should work with someone, with whom he now has a personal relationship. It will be a great opportunity for the two countries to resolve their issues.” he pointed out

The most important changes of the new government are found in four persons, the two of which are of direct Greek interest and concern the Turkish Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense, where the positions of Cavusoglu and Akar are now taken over by Hakan Fidan and Yasar Guler. The other two are the finance minister who will take over the “hot potato” of the Turkish economy, Mehmet Simsek but also the Minister of the Interior, Ali Gerlikaya in the place of the well-known Suleiman Soylou.

The four “key” persons

The 55-year-old Hakan Fidanthe new foreign minister is the head of Turkey’s National Intelligence Agency (MIT) and one of the Turkish president’s closest confidants.

Military, diplomat, academic. He served as a non-commissioned officer in the Turkish Armed Forces until 2001, but then left voluntarily to study Political Science at Maryland, USA, and then at the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna, the United Nations Disarmament Institute in Geneva, and the Verification Technologies Research Center in London. . He worked as an academic at Hacettepe and Bilkent universities.

In 2003, he was appointed chairman of the Turkish Cooperation and Development Administration (TIKA).

In 2010, he was appointed director of the National Intelligence Agency and made history as the youngest director of MIT.

In 2015, he resigned from the AKP to run for the parliamentary nomination, as he had ambitions for a ministerial post. However, shortly after, under pressure from Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he backed down and returned to his duties.

In 2011 he secretly met with PKK officials for peace talks, which when leaked to the press embarrassed Erdogan and prompted him to change his Kurdish policy.

THE Yasar Gulerthe GEETHA chief is Hulusi Akar’s replacement at the defense ministry, with his selection seen as a major shift in Turkey’s defense strategy.

In the July 15, 2016 coup attempt, military coup plotters stormed the office of Yasar Güler and forcibly transferred him to Akıncı Air Base outside Ankara by helicopter.

In 2018, he was appointed chief of the General Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces.

Turkey’s new finance minister, Mehmet Simsekis of Kurdish origin, worked at Merrill Lynch in London and later at UBS in New York, while also serving as economic advisor at the US Embassy in Ankara.

He was elected for the first time as an MP with the AKP in 2007 and in 2009 he became the Minister of Finance. A close associate of Ali Babacan, especially when he became the deputy prime minister in charge of the economy and a follower of the orthodox understanding of economics.

Mehmet Simsek served as Turkey’s finance minister between 2009 and 2015, when Erdogan’s entourage was dominated by economic advisers espousing the unorthodox view of low interest rates.

In 2013 he was named “Finance Minister of the Year in Emerging Europe” by “Emerging Markets” magazine.

Erdogan negotiated a tough deal with Simsek on the post-election economy. The new Minister of Finance set 3 conditions for the Turkish president, in order to take over the country’s most difficult chair. Change of governor of the Central Bank and its independence, gradual increase of interest rates to 25% (!) in 18 months and universal non-intervention of the Turkish president in the economy.

THE Ali Gerlikaya takes over the Ministry of Interior, replacing Suleiman Soylu. A newcomer to politics, born in Iconium, the stronghold of fundamentalist Islamists, he began to be a member of the Turkish bureaucracy since 1990. Since 2018, he has served as the prefect of Istanbul.

He is the political superior of the mayor of Istanbul, Ekrem Imamoglu, and his placement in the interior ministry, in the face of impending convictions against Imamoglu’s political action, gives him the power even to fire him.