Twelve new desks to be founded at presidency: Report

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. AA Photo

As discussion heats up over President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s upcoming chairmanship of the Turkish Cabinet later this month, a pro-government newspaper has reported that 12 new desks will be founded at the presidency, adding to former rumors that a “shadow cabinet” would begin to take charge.

The new desks will develop policies and strategies, take a role in coordinating state bodies and consult the government, daily Sabah reported Dec. 31.

This is a new scheme in the organization of the presidency, Sabah said.

The new desks will act under the secretary general and his four deputies, according to a plan that Erdoğan will explain to the Cabinet at a meeting he will chair on Dec. 19, Sabah said.  

A security policies presidency will oversee the Kurdish bid, the fight against the Gülenist movement and other security issues, it said, while four separate desks will organize the internal workings of the presidency.

The strategy desk will be in charge of ties with the government. The remaining presidencies will be reserved for foreign relations, social and cultural work, economy monitoring and coordination, information technologies, corporate communications and public relations.

The discussion began with Justice and Development Party (AKP) Izmir deputy Binali Yıldırım saying Dec. 16 that Erdoğan would subsequently chair the Cabinet every two months, beginning this year.

Yıldırım, a long-time comrade of Erdoğan, also argued that describing the newly-formed working groups in the presidency as a “shadow cabinet” is “unfair,” saying that the President could not avoid using executive authority after coming to office with 52 percent of the vote in the August 2014 election.
Erdoğan himself repeatedly said that he would be an “active president” and have his hands on policy in the executive field.