Erdogan announces cabinet reshuffle after inauguration

ANKARA — Turkiye’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Saturday a major reshuffle in his cabinet, appointing new ministers for foreign affairs, treasury and finance, defense and vice-president, hours after being sworn in for a third term as president.

Erdogan took oath of office in parliament after winning a historic runoff election to extend his 20-year rule and promised to serve “impartially”.

Unveiling the lineup of his new cabinet, Erdogan announced the reappointment of Mehmet Simsek, a former finance minister and deputy prime minister, to the helm of the economy. Simsek is a respected economist who is seen as a safe pair of hands in the turbulent Turkish economy.

Hakan Fidan, head of the National Intelligence Organization, assumes the role of foreign minister. The 55-year-old new top diplomat is seen as one of Erdogan’s closest confidants.

Yasar Guler, who previously served as the chief of general staff and is seen as a hard-liner on national security issues, takes on the role of defense minister.

The new vice-president is Cevdet Yilmaz, who previously served as deputy prime minister and development minister.

Earlier, dozens of foreign leaders attended Erdogan’s inauguration ceremony at his presidential complex in the capital, Ankara. They included NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.

Turkiye will celebrate its centennial in October, and so presiding over a new “Turkish century” became an important campaign slogan for Erdogan. During his inauguration ceremony, Erdogan hailed “the start of the Turkish century, a new period of glory for our country”. He also pledged to introduce a more liberal constitution and to unite the Turkish people.

Erdogan, 69, won 52.18 percent of votes in the presidential runoff on May 28 against his rival Kemal Kilicdaroglu, leader of the center-left Republican People’s Party.

Erdogan, who has been leading the country since he became prime minister in 2003, became the first executive president of Turkiye in 2018 following a constitutional referendum in 2017 that changed the country’s parliamentary system into a presidential one.