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On July 9, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will take his oath of office in parliament. Turkey will thus officially move from a parliamentary system to a presidential system. Just 13 years have passed since Turkish officials started EU accession negotiations. At the time, it seemed that democracy, freedom of expression and social harmony were growing.

Now, however, Turkey is preparing to endow its increasingly Islamist, nationalist and authoritarian president with an unprecedented amount of power. The abolition of parliamentary control gives Erdogan sole power over the executive branch of government. And, through his power to appoint important judges, he will also control the judiciary.

Ersin Kalaycioglu, a senior scholar at Sabanci University's Istanbul Policy Center, said the potential consequences remained unclear. "So far, the new system has only been discussed with us in broad lines," Kalaycioglu said. "This means that neither the public nor political scientists know the exact details."

Erdogan has repeatedly stressed that other democracies also have presidential systems. However, Turkey's differs considerably from the US's, as well as from France's, semipresidential system of government. In the United States, for example, the president does not have the power to dissolve Congress.

Erdogan, on the other hand, can dissolve parliament and call elections. In France, parliament appoints the members of the Constitutional Court. In Turkey, on the other hand, the president makes the decisions concerning the high court.

Kalaycioglu points out that Turkey's presidential system caters to autocratic tendencies. "There is a strong civil society in both the US and French systems," he said. "We don't have that."

Erdogan will now also be able to regularly issue presidential decrees. He had previously only been allowed to do so under the rules of the ongoing state of emergency since the failed July 2016 coup. Erdogan will now be able to overrule the judiciary at any time.

The oversight of an independent and impartial judiciary will therefore be effectively impossible. The political scientist Dogu Ergil shares Kalaycioglu's fears. He believes that the separation of powers and the independence of the judiciary have been abolished.

Erdogan's cops suppress LGBT Pride celebrations, once a demonstration of inclusion

Danger of ultranationalism

There is also the question of whether Erdogan's alliance with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) in the elections on June 24 will increase domestic tensions. Many fear that the hostile stances taken by the MHP, especially toward Kurds, and the party's rejection of certain established democratic values could create an even more nationalist atmosphere in Turkey. Erdogan needs the MHP in order to have a parliamentary majority. This could prove the biggest obstacle to finding a peaceful solution to conflict with Kurdish groups and to Turkey's efforts to meet EU requirements.

Turkey officially applied for EU membership in 1999, and negotiations began on October 3, 2005. However, little progress has been made over the past 13 years. Negotiations were basically halted after the state of emergency was declared two years ago. The Dutch politician Kati Piri, the European Parliament's Turkey rapporteur, told DW that she would like to see an official suspension of accession negotiations.

While Turkey's EU accession process is in danger of being indefinitely suspended, its relations with the United States are also increasingly difficult. Fethullah Gulen, accused by Erdogan of being the mastermind behind the attempted coup in 2016, lives in the United States.

The US is working with a Kurdish militia group in Syria that Erdogan has called a terrorist organization. And Turkey is planning to buy S-400 missile systems from Russia despite opposition within NATO. All this has led to the impasse.

Ergil, the political scientist, pointed to recent opinion polls that showthe United States even less popular in Turkey than it is in Iran. He said increasingly hostile attitudes toward the US and EU were spreading in Turkey even independently of Erdogan's policies.

In Turkey and abroad, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has a polarizing effect. He has been described as a neo-Ottoman "sultan" as well as an authoritarian leader. From his early beginnings campaigning for Islamist causes to leading NATO's second largest military as the president of Turkey, DW explores the rise of the Turkish leader.

After years of moving up the ranks of the Islamist-rooted Welfare Party, Erdogan was elected mayor of Istanbul in 1994. But four years later, the party was ruled unconstitutional on the grounds it threatened Turkey's secularist nature, and was disbanded. He was later jailed for four months for a controversial public reading of a poem, and consequently lost his mayorship over the conviction.

Erdogan co-founded the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which won a majority of seats in 2002. He was made prime minister in 2003. During his first years in office, Erdogan worked on providing social services, improving the economy and implementing democratic reforms. But some have argued that his premiership was also marked by a religious shift in the political sphere.

While Turkey's constitution guarantees the country's secular nature, observers believe Erdogan has managed to purge the "old secularist guard." The Turkish leader has said that one of his goals is to raise a "pious generation." Erdogan's supporters have hailed the Turkish leader's initiatives, arguing that they've reversed years of discrimination against practicing Muslims.

In July 2016, a failed military coup targeting Erdogan and his government left more than 200 people dead, including civilians and soldiers. In the wake of the coup attempt, Erdogan declared a state of emergency and vowed to "clean up" the military. "In Turkey, armed forces are not governing the state or leading the state. They cannot," he said.

Since the failed coup, authorities have launched a nationwide crackdown, arresting more than 50,000 people in the armed forces, police, judiciary, schools and media. Erdogan has blamed Fethullah Gulen, a self-exiled cleric in the US and former ally, and his supporters of trying to undermine the government. But rights groups believe the allegations are a means to solidify his power and influence.

While Erdogan enjoys significant support in Turkey and the Turkish expatriate community, he has been criticized for his heavy-handed policies and military campaigns against Kurdish militants following the collapse of a peace process in 2015. This January, Erdogan launched a deadly offensive into the northern Syrian enclave of Afrin, an operation that was widely condemned by human rights groups.

Having served as Turkey's president since 2014, Erdogan successfully extended his time in office after winning elections in June. The elections marked Turkey's transition to an executive-style presidency. Observers believe the elections will herald a new era for Turkey for better or worse.

Author: Lewis Sanders IV

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Recep Tayyip Erdogan: The sultan of 21st-century Turkey ...

Speaking exclusively to CNN in Ankara on Tuesday, Erdogan said that there was "nothing to gain" by the move and urged the US to reverse the decision while there was still time to do so, repeating his claim that "East Jerusalem is the capital city of Palestine" and will one day be home to an embassy serving Turkey's interests in a Palestinian state.

He also said the move would jeopardize the global economy. "The United States might gain some certain positivity out of the withdrawal...or the rising oil prices, but many of the countries in poverty will be hit even harder and deeper."

By reimposing sanctions on Iran, Trump is declaring "an economic war" that the world can ill afford, the Turkish leader said.

When asked if he has concerns of a geopolitical war breaking out as a result, he said: "That's not what we would wish to see, of course ... this is not what we'd like to expect. However, in my view, the US would be the ones to lose. Iran will never compromise on this agreement, and will abide by this agreement to the end ... that's what I think. However, the US will lose in the end."

Asked directly what he thinks about the US President, Erdogan said only that "as politicians, we need to abide by the boundaries of mutual respect."

Erdogan's negative remarks about US policy speak to the growing tensions between the two nations. While they retain an important military alliance, their relations have become increasingly frayed as Erdogan has consolidated political power and aligned himself more closely with US foes such as Russia and Iran.

The NATO allies have sparred over a slew of issues in recent years, with added friction coming from the continuing conflict in Syria.

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Erdogan calls Jerusalem US Embassy move 'huge mistake'

Erdogan suggested exchanging Brunson for Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, living in self-imposed exile in Pennsylvania, who is accused of masterminding the coup attempt. Gulen denies the charge.

Cagaptay believes that if he wins Erdogan will strengthen his push to make Turkey politically Islamist, alienating secularists and increasing instability as the two sides clash over the direction of the country.

An Erdogan victory actually threatens to throw Turkey into a deep, long-term political crisis, he said.

That victory isnt as clear as many first expected.

Erdogan called the snap election, bringing forward a vote that was originally due to be held in November 2019, ahead of a potential financial crisis.

Rapid economic growth has slowed and Turkey's currency plummeted 25 percent this year. It hit a record low after Erdogan said he would increase his control of financial policy following the election while on a visit to London in May.

"The polls suggest that for the electorate, the economic issues are overtaking security issues," said Serhat Guvenc, professor at Kadir Has University, to the Associated Press.

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That presented an opportunity Erdogan's rivals have seized upon with unexpectedly engaging campaigns.

The country's opposition found momentum early on, when four parties announced a surprise alliance for the parliamentary elections.

The alliance includes Meral Aksener's Good Party, consisting of nationalists and center-right figures. But the main opposition is the CHP, whose candidate Muharrem Ince a 54-year-old former physics teacher has tried to appeal to conservative Turks with his oratory skills and by showcasing his practicing Muslim family.

Ince has courted the crucial Kurdish vote by visiting Selahattin Demirtas, the imprisoned candidate of the pro-Kurdish HDP.

While not in the alliance, HDPs support could prove crucial for the opposition candidate in a prospective second round and in denying Erdogan's party a majority in parliament.

Erdogan accuses the HDP of connections to the militant group the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which is classified as a terrorist organization by Turkey and the U.S.

Violence has also marred the campaign and with the majority of media outlets under the control of Erdogan and his allies, opposition candidates are struggling to get their voices heard.

Candidates made their final push on Saturday.

Ince's final rally drew at least a million supporters to Istanbul's Maltepe district, police said. There are 5 million people in Maltepe right now but none of the TV channels can show it, Ince said, highlighting the opposition's claims of media bias.

That figure could not be independently verified, though images circulating on social media showed vast crowds of people assembled to hear Ince speak.

Braving a summer thunderstorm, Ince's supporters, in festive mood, sang anthems and waved red and white Turkish flags as their candidate promise to reverse Turkey's turn towards authoritarian rule under Erdogan.

On the other side of the Bosphorus, the waterway bisecting Istanbul and separating Europe from Asia, thousands filled a road in suburban Istanbul to hear Erdogan talk up his infrastructure projects. The strongman president ask the crowd if they had built a bridge, an airport and improved the country. "Yes we did!" they shouted back.

"He's the only leader standing for the whole Muslim community and all of Turkey," said Yakup Kalkan, 22, a textile manager attending the rally. "Yes, the economy is bad, but because of foreign games, especially [from] America."

Erdogan has remained the front-runner throughout, but after allegations of vote-rigging in last year's referendum on presidential powers, questions linger among the opposition over what will happen if the vote is as tight as its now predicted to be.

The two main opposition leader cast their votes on Sunday and vowed vigilance amid fears of possible fraud.

Aksener told reporters in Istanbul: "I hope these elections are beneficial and truly reflect the free will of the voters."

About three weeks after calling the election, Erdogan told parliament: If one day our nation says 'enough,' then we will step aside.

Turkey may get to see if he keeps that promise a lot sooner than anyone expected.

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Erdogan claims victory in Turkey's high-stakes election

ANKARA, Turkey Turkish voters gave President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a decisive victory in national elections on Sunday, lengthening his 15-year grip on power and granting him vastly expanded authority over the legislature and judiciary.

The election was the first to be held since Turkish voters narrowly approved a referendum last year to give the president once a largely ceremonial role sweeping executive powers. Mr. Erdogan will also have a pliant Parliament, with his conservative party and its allies having won about 53 percent of the vote in legislative elections on Sunday.

Mr. Erdogan has overseen a crackdown on lawyers, judges, civil servants and journalists under a state of emergency declared after a failed coup two years ago. His critics had portrayed Sundays election as their last chance to prevent Turkey from becoming an authoritarian state.

The victory has potentially grave consequences for cooperation within NATO, security in Iraq and Syria, and control of immigration flows into Europe.

Turkey has continued to cooperate with its Western partners on counterterrorism efforts, but Mr. Erdogan has tested the NATO alliance by drawing closer to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, buying an advanced Russian missile defense system and planning a Russian-built nuclear reactor in Turkey.

As in other countries where strongmen have gained at the ballot box, many Turkish voters appeared to have accepted Mr. Erdogans argument that powerful centralized authority was essential to forge a strong state and guard against the threat of terrorism.

The results released by the official Anadolu news agency showed Mr. Erdogan with just under 53 percent of the vote, enough to spare him from a runoff against his leading challenger, Muharrem Ince, who won nearly 31 percent.

At 10:30 p.m., Mr. Erdogan, 64, gave a short televised speech to applauding supporters at the gates of Huber Pavilion, one of his residences in Istanbul.

It seems the nation has entrusted me with the duty of the presidency, and to us a very big responsibility in the legislature, Mr. Erdogan said. Turkey has given a lesson of democracy with a turnout of close to 90 percent. I hope that some will not provoke to hide their own failure.

Mr. Erdogan said he would travel to Ankara, the capital, to make his traditional victory speech from the balcony of his party headquarters.

Flag-waving crowds gathered after midnight at the party headquarters, waiting for him to appear. He finally emerged at 3 a.m. Monday.

Mr. Erdogan acknowledged that his own party had taken a hit in the campaign, but said the result was a vindication of his ability to deliver. The winner is the politics of providing services, he said. The winner is the supremacy of the national will. The winner is Turkey, the Turkish nation. The winner is all the aggrieved people in our region, all the oppressed in the world.

Opposition parties initially called his claim of victory premature, but after midnight, Bulent Tezcan, the vice chairman of Mr. Inces party, the Republican Peoples Party, conceded defeat in a brief televised speech.

Our citizens should not be provoked, whatever the result is, he said, urging his supporters to continue their campaign for democracy through peaceful means.

The victory means Mr. Erdogan will almost certainly make good on his desire to become the countrys longest-ruling leader, surpassing Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, who founded the modern Turkish republic out of the ruins of the collapsed Ottoman Empire.

Under the new system brought in by last years referendum, Mr. Erdogan can run for a second term as president and a third, if he were to call an early election opening the possibility that he could stay in office until 2032.

In parliamentary races, Mr. Erdogans party placed first, with more than 42 percent of the vote, the Anadolu agency reported, enough to retain a majority in alliance with the Nationalist Movement Party, which received about 11 percent.

Defenders of Turkeys multiparty democracy did receive some cause for hope: The H.D.P. party, a liberal democratic party that emphasizes minority rights and is led by an imprisoned Kurd, Selahattin Demirtas, surpassed the 10 percent threshold needed to enter Parliament.

The deputy head of the Supreme Election Board said five parties had passed the threshold.

Soner Cagaptay, a scholar and author who has called Mr. Erdogan a new sultan in the vein of the absolute rulers of the Ottoman Empire, said the new Parliament would be the most politically diverse in 35 years, with nearly every major political faction represented.

Support for Mr. Erdogan appeared to be similar to its level in last years constitutional referendum, suggesting that polarization around his simultaneously adored and loathed persona continues to divide Turkey, Mr. Cagaptay said.

Amanda Sloat, an Obama administration official who is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, said that one of the countrys biggest challenges for the foreseeable future remains the deep polarization of Turkish society.

She said Mr. Erdogans reliance on the Nationalist Movement Party for its majority means foreign policy will likely remain influenced by nationalist considerations.

But she said the hard-fought election showed that Turkish democracy was resilient.

The opposition parties ran surprisingly strong, energetic and competitive campaigns, Ms. Sloat said. Parliament will be diverse, with the coalition system ensuring the representation of a wide range of parties including the Kurds.

The victory for Mr. Erdogan and his allies appeared to defy last-minute polls indicating that they were in danger. The final opinion poll conducted by the independent Metropoll suggested that Mr. Erdogan might suffer a double blow, being forced into a second round of voting for the presidency and losing control of Parliament.

The election was seen in large measure as a referendum on Mr. Erdogans rule, with many voters expressing concerns about what they say is his growing authoritarian streak and a struggling economy, which they blame on corruption and mismanagement.

The economy, once a strong point for Mr. Erdogan, has stumbled badly in the last year. Turkey has accumulated significant foreign debt, the Turkish lira has lost 20 percent of its value and direct foreign investment has plunged as investors have been scared off by the presidents increasingly belligerent and anti-Western tone.

The economic turmoil may make Mr. Erdogan more careful about picking fights with the West, but it could also spell growing unrest and political challenges at home against a newly energized and unified opposition.

Bekir Agirdir, founder of the polling firm Konda, predicted that Mr. Erdogan would struggle to rule the country: His constitutional changes in 2017 to create an executive presidency were approved narrowly, 51 percent to 49 percent.

He cannot rule the remaining 49 percent, Mr. Agirdir said in an interview before Sundays election. He suggested that Mr. Erdogan was bound to see a showdown eventually. This is the rehearsal. The real election will be in two to three years time.

Many in the opposition saw the campaign as a final chance to save democracy. We are crossing the last bridge before it falls, said Burcu Akcaru, a founder of the new Good Party. Then we leave the country.

Mr. Erdogan called the election two months ago they had not been expected until November 2019 in hopes of scoring a big win that he maintained would be a turning point for the country, allowing him to create a stronger, more powerful state.

When he came to power 15 years ago, Mr. Erdogan won wide support as a pro-European, moderate Islamist who supported democracy and economic liberalization. But over the years the earlier philosophy was replaced by a more personal and dictatorial rule, particularly after the failed coup in July 2016. Along the way, he either abandoned or alienated many of his allies.

The new presidential system will codify the executive powers Mr. Erdogan has already been exercising under the state of emergency. Under the new system, the office of prime minister, which Mr. Erdogan held from 2003 to 2014, will be abolished. The cabinet will be composed of presidential appointees rather than elected lawmakers. And Parliaments powers are reduced, including oversight of the budget.

Mr. Erdogan has imprisoned many of his critics, including thousands of Kurdish politicians and activists, members of civil society organizations, and Islamists accused of being followers of Fethullah Gulen, the cleric whom Turkish leaders accuse of organizing the coup attempt.

Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the Nationalist Movement Party, whose result on Sunday ensures the alliances parliamentary majority for Mr. Erdogan, said of the opposition: They wanted to demolish us, they couldnt manage; they wanted to ravage us, they failed.

Those who spell disasters hit the consciousness of Turkishness and fell apart, he said.

The elections losers must now figure out how to maintain a voice in an increasingly authoritarian nation.

Mr. Demirtas, the imprisoned Kurdish leader whose left-leaning minority-rights party won 11 percent of the vote, had urged Turks to vote against Mr. Erdogan and his allies, encouraging them to grab an opportunity before entering a dark and obscure tunnel.

What you go through nowadays is only a trailer of the one-man regime. The most frightening part of the movie hasnt even started yet, he warned. Everything will be arranged in accordance with the desire, pleasure and interests of one man. You will feel unable to breathe in a regime of fear and despair; you will feel like you are strangled.

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Erdogans Victory in Turkey Election Expands His Powers ...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was proclaimed the winner early Monday of a landmark election that ushers in a government system granting the president sweeping new powers and which critics say will cement what they call a one-man rule.

The presidential vote and a parliamentary election, both held more than a year early, completed NATO-member Turkey's transition from a parliamentary system to a presidential one, a process started with a voter referendum last year.

"The nation has entrusted to me the responsibility of the presidency and the executive duty," Erdogan said in televised remarks from Istanbul after a near-complete count carried by the state-run Anadolu news agency gave him the majority needed to avoid a runoff.

The head of Turkey's Supreme Election Council, Sadi Guven, declared Erdogan the winner early Monday after 97.7 of votes had been counted. The electoral board plans to announce final official results on June 29.

Based on unofficial results, five parties passed the 10 percent support threshold required for parties to enter parliament, Guven said.

"This election's victor is democracy, this election's victory is national will," Erdogan told a cheering crowd outside his party headquarters in Ankara early Monday, adding that Turkey "will look at its future with so much more trust than it did this morning."

Earlier, cheering Erdogan supporters waving Turkish flags gathered outside his official residence in Istanbul, chanting "Here's the president, here's the commander."

"Justice has been served!" said Cihan Yigici, one of those in the crowd.

Thousands of jubilant supporters of the pro-Kurdish Peoples' Democratic Party, or HDP, also spilled into the streets of the predominantly Kurdish southeastern city of Diyarbakir after unofficial results from Anadolu showed the party surpassing the 10 percent threshold and coming in third with 11.5 percent of the parliamentary vote.

The HDP's performance was a success, particularly considering it campaigned with nine of its lawmakers, including its presidential candidate Selahattin Demirtas, and thousands of party members in jail. It says more than 350 of its election workers have been detained since April 28.

Revelers waved HDP flags and blared car horns. One party supporter, Nejdet Erke, said he had been "waiting for this emotion" since the morning.

Erdogan, 64, insisted the expanded powers of the Turkish presidency will bring prosperity and stability to the country, especially after a failed military coup attempt in 2016. A state of emergency imposed after the coup remains in place.

Some 50,000 people have been arrested and 110,000 civil servants have been fired under the emergency, which opposition lawmakers say Erdogan has used to stifle dissent.

The new system of government abolished the office of prime minister and empowers the president to take over an executive branch and form the government. He will appoint ministers, vice presidents and high-level bureaucrats, issue decrees, prepare the budget and decide on security policies.

The Turkish Parliament will legislate and have the right to ratify or reject the budget. With Erdogan remaining at the helm of his party, a loyal parliamentary majority could reduce checks and balances on his power unless the opposition can wield an effective challenge.

Erdogan's apparent win comes at a critical time for Turkey. He recently has led a high-stakes foreign affairs gamble, cozying up to Russian President Vladimir Putin with pledges to install a Russian missile defense system in the NATO-member country.

The president's critics have warned that Erdogan's re-election would cement his already firm grip on power and embolden a leader they accuse of showing increasingly autocratic tendencies.

According to Anadolu, the near-complete results showed Erdogan winning an outright majority of 52.5 percent, far ahead of the 30.7 percent received by his main challenger, the secular Muharrem Ince.

The HDP's imprisoned Demirtas was in third place with 8.3 percent according to Anadolu. Demirtas has been jailed pending trial on terrorism-related charges he has called trumped-up and politically motivated.

But Ince said the results carried on Anadolu were not a true reflection of the official vote count by the country's electoral board. The main opposition party that nominated him for the presidency, the CHP, said it was waiting for the commission's official announcement.

Erdogan also declared victory for the People's Alliance, an electoral coalition between his ruling Justice and Development Party and the small Nationalist Movement Party, saying they had a "parliamentary majority" in the 600-member assembly.

The unofficial results for the parliamentary election showed Erdogan's Justice and Development Party, or AKP, losing its majority, with 293 seats in the 600-seat legislature. However, the small nationalist party the AKP was allied with garnered 49 seats.

"Even though we could not reach out goal in parliament, God willing we will be working to solve that with all our efforts in the People's Alliance," Erdogan said.

The president, who has never lost an election and has been in power since 2003, initially as prime minister, had faced a more robust, united opposition than ever before. Opposition candidates had vowed to return Turkey to a parliamentary democracy with strong checks and balances and have decried what they call Erdogan's "one-man rule."

Erdogan enjoys considerable support in the conservative and pious heartland, having empowered previously disenfranchised groups. From a modest background himself, he presided over an infrastructure boom that modernized Turkey and lifted many out of poverty while also raising Islam's profile, for instance by lifting a ban on Islamic headscarves in schools and public offices.

But critics say he became increasingly autocratic and intolerant of dissent. The election campaign was heavily skewed in his favor, with opposition candidates struggling to get their speeches aired on television in a country where Erdogan directly or indirectly controls most of the media.

Ince, a 54-year-old former physics teacher, was backed by the center-left opposition Republican People's Party, or CHP. He wooed crowds with an unexpectedly engaging campaign, drawing massive numbers at his rallies in Turkey's three main cities of Istanbul, Ankara and Izmir.

More than 59 million Turkish citizens, including 3 million expatriates, were eligible to vote.

Fraser reported from Ankara. Bram Janssen in Istanbul, Sinan Yilmaz in Diyarbakir and Mehmet Guzel in Ankara contributed.

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Erdogan proclaimed winner of landmark Turkish election ...