Turkish President and AKP leader Tayyip Erdoğan has regained power through the June 24 election and just a few days ago announced the Cabinet of Ministers within his “Turkish type presidential system”. The announcement of the Cabinet has led to discussions and democratic forces called it immediately as "War Cabinet".

Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) Amed (Diyarbakır) provincial branch co-chair Filiz Buluttekin has spoken to ANF on the new cabinet.

"No new cabinet"

Since the founding of the Republic of Turkey, a regime has ruled based on a nationalist way of thinking, Buluttekin said. The new government cabinet is thus only the latest variant of a regime that ignores democratic principles and minorities. "The Cabinet is not new either, because it is filled with names that have caused war and chaos in the past three to four years, prevented democratization and have shown a fascist attitude. This cabinet represents the installed one-man system. In particular, when looking at the ministries involved in security, we see that former Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu continues and Chief of Staff Hulusi Akar has been appointed Minister of Defense. This means that freedoms are pushed further into the background. The composition of the Cabinet shows that the so-called security policy continues to come to the fore."

On the appointment of Erdoğan's son-in-law Berat Albayrak as Finance Minister, Filiz Buluttekin said: "The economy and all autonomous institutions are placed under the one-man regime. The new Cabinet will centralize power and reformat the state apparatus."

"Unconditional obedience"

Instead of filling the ministerial posts in a way to enable the state organs to do a better job, Erdoğan has chosen a cabinet that obeys him unconditionally, Buluttekin said: "In this respect, it can be said that it is not a Cabinet but a tribal and family business. Characteristic of this are the threats uttered by Interior Minister Soylu to the HDP, the third largest party in parliament, the war policy that Defense Minister Akar is advocating for and the transfer of responsibility for the finances to his own son-in-law."

"Combining forces in the fight for a democratization"

The peoples and minorities have the task of fighting against the mentality of the current government, said Buluttekin, who concluded: "We must create the basis for uniting our forces in the democratic struggle and raise our voice. Egypt, Iraq and Libya are examples of how such regimes can end. In the current Cabinet, a hotel owner has been made Minister of Tourism, a private school owner Minister of Education, and a private hospital owner Minister of Health.

It even goes so far that people who have not completed law studies can be placed in positions where they can make legal decisions. We are talking about a system in which the whole area of ​​democracy is circulated and subordinated to a single person. In the face of this, all peoples and alliances must unite to fight on a democratic basis."