PM Erdoğan says Cabinet reshuffle not on agenda

ANKARA - Hürriyet Daily News

This file photo shows Energy Minister Taner Yıldız (L) and Forestry and Waterworks Minister Veysel Eroğlu (R).

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan yesterday played down expectation that a major Cabinet reshuffle would follow the much anticipated congress of his ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP), scheduled for Sept. 30.

“These are always routine questions … The changes within Cabinets and their renewal are not always matters that go parallel with congresses … Something like this is out of the question on our roadmap at the moment,” Erdoğan said, speaking at a press conference ahead of his departure from Ankara for an official visit to Azerbaijan.

“What we are completely focused on now is, God willing, providing a strong political organization for the mastership era, on Sept. 30,” he added.

Recalling that Süleyman Soylu, former leader of the Democrat Party, had joined the ruling party with a ceremony held on the sidelines of an enlarged parliamentary group meeting at the party headquarters on Sept. 5, Erdoğan said there had been a number of other individual requests to join the party, as well as demands from towns and district municipalities. The procedures for incorporating these individuals and organizations will be finalized by Sept. 30, he said.

“With these participations, God willing, we aim to showcase a congress at the Ankara Arena [Ankara’s Arena Sports Hall] that will be an example in Turkish politics in many aspects,” Erdoğan said, adding that the party had been carrying out all related infrastructure work for such a congress.

Emphasizing that the Sept. 30 congress should not be considered a kind of threshold, Erdoğan said the real threshold was Aug. 14, 2001, the foundation date of the ruling party.

“This process began there. Now there will be an update, and the ongoing processes will continue more strongly with this update. In addition to these political reforms, we will talk about what we can do in the economic field, what will happen in foreign policy, and what kind of steps we have taken in our country in the fight against terror,” he said.