Turkey’s new cabinet may include ministers from parliament: Erdoğan

ANKARA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said that he may select some deputies from the parliament as ministers in Turkey’s new cabinet, the first after the switch to executive presidential system.

“Ministers may be [selected] from the parliament as well, why not?” Erdoğan told journalists on July 7, after the ruling Justice and Development Party’s (AKP) first parliamentary group meeting under his leadership in the new term following the June 24 elections.

Erdoğan had said on July 6 in a speech to provincial heads in Ankara that he was “forming a cabinet with ministers who are not AKP members.

Under the new system, the presidential cabinet consists of ministers who cannot be members of the parliament, too. As a result, any MP that Erdoğan picks for the new cabinet would be obliged to resign from the parliament, decreasing the number of AKP seats.

The AKP had lost its single-party majority in the parliament in the June 24 elections, winning 295 seats, while its ‘People’s Alliance’ with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) retained the majority.

Erdoğan also told his party’s parliamentary group on July 7 that the first presidential decree under the new system would be issued on July 9, the day that the new cabinet is also expected to be announced.

The first cabinet meeting is scheduled to be held on July 13, Erdoğan said.

“Those who claim that we are exhausted do not know how trained and fit we are. We are proceeding on our path even more strongly,” Turkish President said, slamming his critics.

Naci Bostancı, a lawmaker from Ankara province, was elected the AKP's parliamentary group chairman on July 7.

Bostancı was born in the northern city of Amasya on Aug. 2, 1957. He was a professor in the Communications Department of Gazi University in Ankara before being elected as deputy in 2011.

Özlem Zengin, Muhammet Emin Akbaşoğlu, Cahit Özkan, Bülent Turan and Mehmet Muş were elected as the new deputy parliamentary group chairmen.

Mustafa Şentop was elected as deputy parliament speaker.