The leaders of six opposition parties in Turkey pledged on Monday to bring back parliamentary democracy and scrap the executive presidential system that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan introduced three years ago. In a ceremony in Ankara, the parties' leaders put their signatures on a 48-page declaration confirming their resolve to introduce a “Strengthened Parliamentary System” should they unseat Erdogan in elections currently scheduled for June 2023.
Erdogan, who has been in office since 2003, inaugurated a presidential system in 2018 that abolished the office of the prime minister and concentrated most powers in the hands of the president. The office of the president had been a largely ceremonial post until then. The opposition has blamed Turkey’s woes, including an economic downturn and an erosion of rights and freedoms, on Erdogan’s system which they say amounts to a “one-man rule.” The new system envisioned by the six opposition parties would revive the office of the prime minister and restore the president’s largely symbolic powers, party officials said during the ceremony. It foresees a greater separation of powers, including an increased legislative and oversight role for the parliament, and an independent judiciary. It also promises transparency and greater rights and freedoms, including women’s rights.
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