Recep Tayyip Erdogan, 69, who was re-elected last Sunday as Turkey’s president, was sworn in on Saturday before Parliament in Ankara.
The head of state, in power for twenty years, swore to “assume his duty with impartiality” before the 600 deputies elected on May 14, in a ceremony broadcast live by tucos television channels. Ankara makes a huge ceremonial display, attended by delegates from 70 countries, including more than 30 heads of state or government.
According to TRT, 21 heads of state will attend, including the president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, who already arrived in Ankara yesterday, that of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, a frequent guest of Erdogan, that of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, and that of Bulgaria. , Rumen Radev. Among the 13 heads of government present are the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, that of Armenia, Nikol Pashinián, that of Libya, Abdulhamid Dbeiba, and that of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif.
The heads of state of several Balkan countries, such as Kosovo, North Macedonia and Montenegro, Central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan, Asian countries such as Bangladesh and African countries such as Senegal, Rwanda, Gabon, Guinea, Guinea-Bisau, Togo are also expected. , Congo and Somalia.
Russia will be represented by the chairman of the Duma, the lower house of Parliament, Vyacheslav Volodin, while China will send Ding Zhongli, deputy chairman of the standing committee of the National People’s Congress, the Chinese legislature.
With NATO presence
The Secretary General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, will also be present, who will take advantage, as he has announced, to hold a bilateral meeting with Erdogan. The Egyptian Foreign Minister, Sameh Shukri, traveled to Ankara today to participate in the celebration, according to a statement, which explains that he traveled to the Turkish capital “at the request” of the Egyptian president, Abdelfatah al Sisi, at a time when both countries are a few steps away from normalizing their relations after ten years of diplomatic tensions.
After the ceremony, Erdogan, whose position includes the functions of Head of State and Government, will meet with his team to form the new cabinet of ministers, which will be announced at 10:00 p.m. (7:00 p.m. GMT) and whose composition is still unknown. an unknown.
Simsek, an orthodox economist
According to the Turkish broadcaster NTV, the Minister of Health, Fahrettin Koca, and that of Culture and Tourism, Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, will repeat their posts, and speculation continues about a possible return of the economist Mehmet Simsek to the post of Finance Minister, since he already had between 2009 and 2015.
Simsek’s presence could be a sign that Erdogan is choosing to return to more orthodox policies to clean up Turkey’s battered economy, reining in the current cycle of consumption and inflation, which would stabilize the lira but also momentarily increase unemployment.
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