Erdogan names new cabinet after he is sworn in as Turkey's president
Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan names his new cabinet after being sworn in for an historic third term in office, Euronews reports.
Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who was sworn into his third presidential term on Saturday, reappointed an internationally respected former banker as finance minister in a sign that his new government might pursue more conventional economic policies.
Erdogan, 69, took the oath of office a week after he won a new five-year term in a runoff presidential race that could stretch his 20-year rule in the key NATO country that straddles Europe and Asia into a quarter-century.
Unveiling the lineup of his new Cabinet, Erdogan announced the reappointment of Mehmet Simsek - a former finance minister and deputy prime minister - to the helm of the economy. Simsek, a former London-based Merrill Lynch banker, returns to the Cabinet as treasury and finance minister after a five-year break from politics.
In other appointments, Erdogan chose as his foreign minister Hakan Fidan, who has headed Turkey's National Intelligence Agency, MIT, since 2010. A former soldier who holds a doctorate in international relations, Fidan replaces Mevlut Cavusoglu, who had held the post since 2014.
The chief of military staff, Gen. Yasar Guler, meanwhile, will take up the post of defence minister, Erdogan announced.
The republic will be celebrating its centennial in October, and so presiding over a new "Turkish century" became an important campaign slogan for Erdogan. During his inauguration ceremony, Erdogan hailed "the start of the Turkish century, a new period of glory for our country."
