Turkey Leadership Crisis: President Erdogan wants to rebuild democratic Turkey into a more strongly authoritarian and presidential state

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s ambition to wield more power from his largely ceremonial office led his hand-picked Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu to step down on Thursday, triggering swings in financial markets and threatening a period of renewed political turmoil.

   From Turkey’s relations with the European Union to the government’s ongoing struggle with Kurdish separatists, here’s why the premier’s departure matters.

   Davutoglu was seen as the architect of the deal with the European Union to send refugees arriving in Europe back across the Aegean Sea to Turkey, and his departure has triggered doubts over whether that agreement can now go ahead. German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi told reporters in Rome on Thursday that the accord must be implemented.

   Even so, a senior party official in Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union criticized Erdogan for tightening his grip on power in Turkey.

   Davutoglu’s sidelining “bolsters concern that President Erdogan wants to rebuild democratic Turkey into a more strongly authoritarian and presidential state,” Juergen Hardt, a CDU lawmaker who sits on the foreign affairs committee, said in an e-mailed statement. “Turkey must decide for itself whether the path to the future leads to Europe or to heightened isolation.”

   In return for help with the migrant crisis, the European bloc provided Turkey with 6 billion euros in refugee aid, offered Turks the prospect of visa-free travel in the EU, and held out the promise of reinvigorating talks on stalled Turkish membership of the group.

Πηγή: bloomberg.com