Recep Tayyip Erdogan sworn in as president of Türkiye. The 69-year-old politician, who won the election last week, is starting his third term. Erdogan was sworn in in parliament after visiting the mausoleum of Kemal Atatürk, founder of the Republic of Turkey, followed by a ceremony at the presidential palace.
Erdogan has been in power in Turkey for 20 years, first as prime minister and since 2014 as president. Because he wasn’t allowed to become prime minister again, he made the presidency that much more important. In this way, Erdogan effectively retained power. Erdogan is also expected to announce his new cabinet today.
Sweden joins NATO
The ceremony in Ankara was attended by several heads of state and prime ministers, as well as NATO head Jens Stoltenberg. He will also want to talk to the Turkish president about Sweden’s attempts to join the military alliance. Turkey has been in trouble for more than a year because Erdogan claims Sweden is harboring Kurdish terrorists.
Stoltenberg might hope that progress can be made now that Erdogan has completed his election campaign. In recent weeks, many NATO countries have expressed the wish that the issue be resolved before the NATO summit in Vilnius in a month and a half.