Eight ministers were removed from Cabinet seats, and nine new faces were added. Debates continue in the Turkish media about the priorities of the new Cabinet, the motivations behind Erdoğan’s decision and what the appointment of certain figures to important ministries means. “Erdoğan would like to receive more votes in the next general elections, scheduled to take place in 2011, than the 38 percent of the vote his party received in the local elections on March 29. The Cabinet he recently established shows that he wants to preserve his power,” suggests Radikal’s Murat Yetkin, who is hopeful about the performance of the new Cabinet. Among the issues he believes the new Cabinet should address, he cites changes to the current Constitution as a priority but warns that without taking any action to settle the fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) it is very likely that any steps the Cabinet takes to create a new Constitution will be in vain. Yetkin also singles out the ongoing economic crisis, which many say will continue into 2010, as one of the problems the new Cabinet must deal with, noting that everyone needs to step more carefully than ever in this crisis environment. “In his first meeting with the newly established Cabinet on Monday, Erdoğan showed that he no longer has the luxury of wasting time on political fantasies, that acting carelessly will have a big cost and that he learned these lessons from the results of the March 29 elections,” he writes.
Bugün’s Ahmet Taşgetiren focuses on the debates over the appointment of former Parliament Speaker Bülent Arınç as deputy prime minister, noting that this appointment is one that will “complete” Prime Minister Erdoğan. He congratulates Erdoğan on bringing Arınç, who is known for his straightforwardness, into this position, because Erdoğan wanted Arınç by his side, both for his moral support and his awareness. “Now Arınç is in a sensitive position. He has to both tell the truth and stop at the point that his criticism becomes unbearable. He needs to take care of Erdoğan and restrain himself. Arınç will see a very important period in his political life. He has assumed the duty of being one of the cornerstones of the AK Party. I wish him success,” Taşgetiren says.
Making a general evaluation of the Cabinet reshuffle, another Radikal columnist, Hasan Celal Güzel, says the determining factor in the choice of ministers who were replaced was the success of the AK Party in their regions in the local elections. He says although they were successful ministers, former Education Minister Hüseyin Çelik and former State Minister Kürşad Tüzmen were removed from their posts because of the AK Party’s defeat in their provinces, Van and Mersin, respectively.
