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July 13, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 5
Pakistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sudan, Guinea, Zambia, Guinea Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, Somalia, Mauritania, Gabon, Chad, Djibouti, Venezuela and Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus as well as the Emir of Qatar attended the ceremony at Bestepe.
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, Vene- zuela’s Nicolás Maduro and Hungarian Prime Min- ister Viktor Orban were also among the attendees.
The European Union sent its Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopou- los to Ankara.
New cabinet announced
On July 9, Erdogan also unveiled his 16-minister cabinet.
The bottom line: Deputy Prime Minister Mehmet Simsek, Finance Minister Naci Agbal and Econo- my Minister Nihat Zeybekci are out.
Erdogan picked his replacements from his inner circle, choosing people personally loyal to him over competence.
Erdogan’s son-in-law Berat Albayrak, the energy minister in the previous government, has been appointed as the minister of finance and treasury in a ministry that has an expanded brief and will be in charge of the economy.
The USD/TRY rate jumped to 4.7 at 11:00pm local time after Erdogan announced the new cabinet from 4.58 at 9:00pm, as investors reacted to the news.
Investors were spooked by an interview Erdogan gave in May, where he make “unchained” com- ments and laid out his unorthodox theory that cutting interest rates bring inflation down — the opposite of accepted economic theory.
Yigit Bulut, Erdogan’s advisor, wrote on Twitter that: “The appointment of Berat Albayrak is the most important step taken under the new system.
As our President has stressed repeatedly taking steps towards fighting inflation will be the best gift to Turkey.”
Market participants were terrified that Erdogan would move to take control of the central bank and implement his ideas. Now they fear the appoint- ment of Albayrak will allow him to do just that and the central bank will lose all independence.
The decree reduced the central bank governor’s role in making appointments to deputy governor posts.
As far as other key appointments are concerned, respected Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has retained his post, and is expected to continue his pugnacious policies with the rest of Europe. Erdogan loyalists Interior Minister Suleyman
Soylu and Justice Minister Abdulhamit Gul also kept their posts.
Maybe the most surprising was the appointment of Chief of Staff Gen. Hulusi Akar as the minister of defence.
Ruhsar Pekcan, CEO of a private engineering company, has been appointed trade minister.
Erdogan picked Fuat Oktay, who previously served as the prime ministry undersecretary, as his vice president.
Erdogan named Fahrettin Koca, a doctor to the Erdogan family and chairman of the Medipol Hos- pital chain, to head health ministry.
He picked the board chairman of one of Turkey’s largest tour operators ETS, Mehmet Ersoy, as tourism minister.
Under a decree issued ahead of Erdogan’s inau- guration ceremony in parliament several minis- tries have been merged leaving a reduced cabinet of 16 ministers.