The train drives ever closer to the final station, when Sultan Erdogan I’s neo-Ottoman proto-empire will be achieved.
[AnNahar] President His Enormity, Sultan Recep Tayyip Erdogan the First
...Turkey's version of Mohammed Morsi but they voted him back in so they deserve him. It's a sin, a shame, and a felony to insult the president of Turkey. In Anatolia did Recep Bey a stately Presidential Palace decree, that has 1100 rooms. That's 968 more than in the White House, 400 more than in Versailles, and 325 more than Buckingham Palace, so you know who's really more important...said on Monday that it may be time for
...just another cheapjack Moslem dictatorship, brought to you by the Moslem Brüderbund...
to adopt a new constitution, feeding speculation that he could seek a way to extend his rule.
Erdogan, 66, has governed Turkey as prime minister or president since 2002, cementing his control over the nation of 83 million people and surviving a failed coup.
He pushed through changes to the constitution in 2017 that created an executive presidency and abolished the premiership.
He then won the 2018 presidential election, the first of two potential five-year terms under the revised rules.
Turkey is scheduled to hold parliamentary and presidential elections in June 2023, meaning that Erdogan's rule would have to end by 2028 if he were re-elected.
Riiiiight. Raise your hand if you believe that. Beuller? Beuller?
But after chairing a four-hour cabinet meeting, the president raised the idea of writing a brand new constitution to replace one that Turkey has been using since 1982. It was drafted following a military coup.
"It is clear that the source of Turkey's problems is that constitutions have always been written by putschists," Erdogan said in nationally televised remarks.
"It may be time for Turkey to reopen the debate about a new constitution," he said. "If we reach a common understanding with our (ruling coalition) partners, we may take action for a new constitution in the future."
Erdogan's AK Party is allied in parliament with ultranationalist MHP.
| Or Nationalist Movement Party, when their mothers are particularly angry... |
- ERODING SUPPORT -
Erdogan has never lost an election, but his popularity has been waning since he unleashed a sweeping crackdown after the failed coup in 2016.
His jailing of political opponents and assault on civil liberties have been accompanied by economic problems that analysts blame on financial mismanagement.
The
Turkey's political opposition has been pushing Erdogan to call a snap election, arguing that he has lost the public's trust.
Soner Cagaptay, Turkey program director at the Washington Institute, said Erdogan's comments were his "first admission that he may not win Turkey’s next elections held under the new executive-style presidential system".
"His likely next step: divide his opposition through culture wars along left-right lines," Cagaptay said in a tweet.
"Turkey is a right-wing dominated country (where Erdogan will) try to build a new majority."