Turkish president says country urgently needs to make switch to an executive presidency
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has announced snap elections on 24 June, more than a year earlier than planned, saying the country urgently needed to make the switch to an executive presidency. Whoever wins will be vested with extraordinary powers after a referendum last year transformed Turkey into a presidential republic instead of a parliamentary one.
Erdoğan has established a formal alliance with the MHP to fight the elections, which made it hard for his Justice and Development party (AKP) to to dismiss Bahçeli's call out of hand.
"Developments in Syria and elsewhere have made it urgent to switch to the new executive system in order to take steps for our country's future in a stronger way … We discussed Mr Bahçeli's call with our relevant authorities. We came to the agreement that we should approach this early election positively."
In a related development, Turkey's parliament is due to vote later on Wednesday on whether to prolong the state of emergency that was declared after the failed coup. Parliament is widely expected to extend the state of emergency for a seventh time despite calls at home and abroad for it to end.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/18/turkey-to-hold-snap-elections-on-24-june-says-erdogan
In short, Turkey is moving the parliamentary and presidental elections, which were planned for November 2019 (at the same time) towards June 2018. Officially because the MHP (Ultranationalist Party) leader asked Erdogan to, but in reality everybody knows that is a mere show. It is essentially early fulfilling the presidential republic which was voted for in the referendum last year and giving Erdogan even more power. At the same time parliament is most likely going to prolong the state of emergency, which gives the power to rule via decrets, for the 7th time. If I understood it correctly MHP and AKP will cooperate and form an election coalition as well meaning AKP will probably have 60%+ or something in the parliamentary election.
Suggested Points of Dicussion:
-Is hope for Turkey to return towards a more european country finally lost?
-What will be the interior and exterior ramifications of this announcement and the likely election results?
-What should the reaction to this be, especcially of the EU?