BUREAUCRATS AND TECHNOCRATS

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a new government. It is notable thanks to a number of features that have been the subject of serious discussions and speculations.

In fact, the entire cabinet was renewed with the exception of Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca and Minister of Culture and Tourism Mehmet Nuri Ersoy, who did not run in the parliamentary elections. Observers believe that one of the reasons why Erdogan did not appoint, unlike before, the newly elected deputies as ministers to the new cabinet is because the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has fewer seats in the parliament than in the past and wants to maintain a parliamentary majority.

A team of technocrat bureaucrats

Meanwhile, Erdogan has fulfilled his pre-election promise to renew the cabinet. Unlike the previous one, there is almost no politicians in the new Turkish government, as most of the cabinet members are bureaucrats and technocrats.

There are only a few ministers who previously served as deputies, that is, people coming directly from the world of politics. One of them is the new vice-president, Cevdet Yilmaz, a man with a serious political career. He has previously worked as the Minister of Development (2011-2015), Deputy Prime Minister (2015), Deputy Chairman of the AKP and Chairman of the Planning and Budget Commission in the 27th parliament. Yilmaz is also an economist and is considered close to the newly appointed Minister of Finance Mehmet Simsek, meaning the economic bloc will be a priority in the new government.

The second minister with a political background in Erdogan's new government is the Minister of Justice, Yilmaz Tunc, who has been elected to parliament five times in a row. He was chairman of the Judiciary Commission and deputy chairman of the AKP faction in the Turkish parliament.

Omar Bolat and Vedat Isikhan are two other ministers in Türkiye's 67th government who previously served as politicians. Bolat was chairman of MÜSAİD (Association of Independent Industrialists and Entrepreneurs) and a member of the AKP board, while Isikhan was a member of the Social Policy Department under the Erdogan administration.

Mahinur Ozdemir Goktas is the only woman in Türkiye's new cabinet. Born in Belgium, she was elected a member of the Belgian parliament in 2009 from the Christian Democratic Party. In 2019, Goktas was appointed Türkiye's ambassador to Algeria.

Some members of the new government served as ministers or deputy ministers in previous cabinets. For example, the incumbent Minister of Agriculture and Forestry, Ibrahim Yumakli, Minister of Industry and Technology, Mehmet Fatih Kacir, and Minister of Energy and Natural Resources, Alparslan Bayraktar, have previously served as deputy ministers. In other words, their appointments were from "internal resources" so to speak. In fact, the Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Abdulkadir Uraloglu, the former head of Türkiye's General Directorate of Roads, is also an 'insider' in the new cabinet.

Similarly, Yusuf Tekin, former Deputy Minister of Education in 2013-2018 and rector of the HBV University, was appointed the new minister of education.

New era of security and foreign policy

President Erdogan appointed the Chief of the General Staff, Gen. Yasar Guler, as a defence minister, demonstrating his commitment to the tradition established by himself back in 2018. That is how Army General Hulusi Akar, the then Chief of the General Staff and now Gen. Guler's predecessor, got his post in 2018. Akar now became a member of parliament.

Not included in the new cabinet is Suleyman Soylu, the former interior minister (since 2016), who has been involved in many scandals. There has been much speculation in the media about Soylu's return. However, President Erdogan replaced him with Ali Yerlikaya, who has previously held various positions in the ministries of interior and health, has been a governor of several provinces, including Istanbul for the past five years.

Hakan Fidan is the newly appointed minister of foreign affairs, a key strategic position in any government. His previous positions include the head of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TIKA) under the Cabinet of Ministers and the head of the National Intelligence Organisation for thirteen years. He has been active in foreign policy. In recent years, Fidan has been one of the key names behind the process of normalisation of Ankara's relations with Cairo and Damascus. Fidan's appointment as foreign minister suggests Türkiye will pay more attention to solving urgent problems with the regional countries, including with Iran.

Perhaps one of the most resounding appointments was that of Mehmet Simsek as minister of finance and treasury. He was Türkiye's finance minister and deputy prime minister in charge of economic affairs in 2007-2018. Before that he had had a successful financial career in the West. It is known that before the election Erdogan met with Simsek twice, offering him a seat in the new cabinet in case he was re-elected, but was turned down each time. However, after the elections, Simsek did agree to take over as finance minister. According to the Turkish media, his agreement to take the role at such a crucial time for Türkiye was due to Erdogan's promise to give him full autonomy and the right to form his own team.

Simsek's appointment as finance minister raised hopes for a better economic situation in Türkiye, thanks to his previous successful track record in the financial sector and his ability to maintain good relations with Western financial institutions. It is believed that Simsek will be able to attract Western financial institutions back to Türkiye.

Ibrahim Kalin, President Erdogan's press secretary and chief foreign policy adviser for nearly a decade, replaced Hakan Fidan as the new MIT head. The appointment can signal the continuation of the joint work of the Turkish intelligence and foreign policy departments, as Kalin had previously supervised the activities of both institutions in the Erdogan administration and is considered to be close to Hakan Fidan.

New team, zero scandals

As noted, Erdogan's new cabinet consists of bureaucrats and experts who are far from political processes and have not been involved in major scandals. Most members of the team have received education and training or done academic research in the West. However, the replacement of Suleyman Soylu and Mevlut Cavusoglu, known for their anti-Western rhetoric before the election, can signal an expected softening of relations with the West.

The main task of the economic bloc in the new cabinet is to rectify the financial situation in the country, attract Western investors, thereby preventing sharp inflation.

Geopolitical and security priorities will be the development of external relations, including with the West, improving ties with neighbouring countries and accelerating the process of reconciliation with Egypt, Syria and the Gulf countries.

Perhaps most importantly, the new team is almost devoid of people with serious political ambitions and close ties to other political forces. The team is loyal to Erdogan and hard-working. It can also be called a kind of preparation for the next five years, since the next elections will change both the parliament and the president. In other words, it is in the next five years that Türkiye will have to decide on Erdogan's political successor and the future of his party. In this sense, the new government team has been selected carefully.