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In order to extend his two-decade rule for an additional five years, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan won a historic run-off election. He has since been sworn in as head of state.
Later on Saturday, the 69-year-old leader will select his government, which will be in charge of managing an economic crisis marked by rampant inflation and the demise of the lira.
In a ceremony at the parliament in Ankara that was live-broadcast on television, Erdogan said, “I, as president, swear upon my honor and integrity before the great Turkish nation and history to safeguard the existence and independence of the state.”
Regardless of their political beliefs, ethnicity, or religious affiliation, all 85 million citizens of the country are welcome here.
Numerous foreign leaders attended a spectacular event held at the presidential palace in the nation’s capital after the inauguration on Saturday. Amid tensions with the West, Turkey’s longest-serving president confronts significant diplomatic difficulties.
Despite an economic crisis and criticism following a terrible earthquake that claimed more than 50,000 lives in February, Turkey’s transformational but controversial leader won the run-off election on May 28 against a strong opposition coalition.
According to official figures, Erdogan received 52.2 percent of the vote while Kemal Kilicdaroglu received 47.8 percent.
The president’s speech “addressed unity and solidarity several times, and he underlined the importance of forgetting resentment and anger which voters felt during his election campaign,” according to Emre Erdogan from Bilgi University.
“He discussed a liberal and inclusive constitution, which is significant because he had never discussed such issues previously… He also discussed Turkey’s function as a broker of peace in the area. He made an effort to highlight Turkey’s crucial place in world politics.
Economic Crisis
At least 78 members of the international community attended the inauguration ceremony, according to Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid, who was reporting from Ankara.
According to the state-run Anadolu news agency, some of the attendees will be Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan.
Erdogan’s top priority will be addressing the nation’s economic problems, since the inflation rate is at 43.7 percent, in part due to his unconventional interest rate-cutting strategy for stimulating growth.
Given the country’s declining foreign reserves, growing state-backed protected deposits program, and unrestrained inflation expectations, analysts have cautioned that if existing policies are kept in place, the economy will experience even more instability.
In the days following the election, the lira hit fresh all-time lows after seeing a string of falls in previous years.
In their first meeting since the May 14 election, which Erdogan also attended, the new members of the Turkish parliament began to take their oaths of office on Friday. The majority in the 600-seat parliament is held by his alliance.
Erdogan prevailed over a cohesive opposition coalition led by Kilicdaroglu, whose status as head of the CHP party is now in jeopardy.
Sweden’s NATO bid
Prior to a summit in July, NATO countries are eagerly awaiting Ankara’s approval of Sweden’s application to join the organization.
Erdogan has been slow to approve the application because he claims Stockholm is harboring “terrorists” of the banned Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which is a group Ankara and its Western supporters consider to be a terrorist organization.
Erdogan’s inauguration is being attended by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who will meet with Erdogan there, the organization announced on Friday.
Tobias Billstrom, the foreign minister of Sweden, wrote on Twitter that Turkey and Hungary received “a clear message” from NATO members in Oslo to begin the ratification process.
Mevlut Cavusoglu, his Turkish colleague, retorted: “A crystal clear message to our Swedish Friends! In accordance with the Trilateral Memorandum, fulfill your obligations and take decisive action against terrorism.
Following Turkey’s greatest economic crisis since the 1970s, Erdogan’s AK Party won an election in late 2002, and he was subsequently elected prime minister in 2003.
He was elected again in 2018 after winning greater executive powers for the presidency in a 2017 referendum, making him the nation’s first democratically elected president in 2014.
