What powers will Turkey's Erdogan have at his disposal after winning re-election as president?

'We are living through a fascist regime'

The re-election of Recep Tayyip Erdogan has propelled Turkey into a new constitutional era after a referendum last year bestowed the president’s office with a package of sweeping powers which mean he will rule with limited checks and balances.

The quasi-dictatorial powers of the new executive president’s office will allow the veteran leader to dissolve parliament, appoint judges, issue decrees with the force of the law, direct the armed forces and declare war, while the office of prime minister has been abolished.

Coming almost a century after Kemal Ataturk revolutionised Turkish society in the wake of the First World War, the constitutional reforms – approved following a tightly contested referendum in April 2017 – are the most significant in Turkey’s democratic history.

Now, in the first presidential election since the reforms, opposition leaders say Turkey is more fascist than democratic, with a leader who dominates the executive, the judiciary and the legislature.

“We are living through a fascist regime”, the opposition MP Selin Sayek Boke told the BBC. “But fascist regimes don’t usually win elections with 53 per cent, they win with 90 per cent. So this shows that progressive values are still here and can rise up.”

Mr Erdogan will have the explicit authority to directly appoint top public officials, hand pick the cabinet, declare states of emergency and intervene in the country’s legal system.

Turkey has been subject to a state of emergency since a failed coup in July 2016, which prompted the dismissal of 107,000 teachers, police officers, judges and soldiers; while more than 50,000 people have been imprisoned.

“We never bow down in front of anyone except God,” Mr Erdogan told thousands of supporters in front of the ruling AKP’s headquarters in a combative speech following Sunday’s election.

“You have given a lesson to those who wait for Turkey to kneel. The winner of this election is democracy, the will of the people, each one of our 81 million citizens.”

The top-down reforms, however, have concentrated all of the state bureaucracy under his control and could see him remain in the role until 2028, subject to another election at the end of this five-year term.

Mr Erdogan’s rule began in 2003 when he became prime minister, at a time when the office of presidency was largely ceremonial.

After three terms as prime minister, he was elected president in 2014 – a role which could now be compared to judge, jury and executioner.

Following the 2017 referendum, he suggested that the death penalty could be reintroduced as his leadership became ever more characterised by neo-Islamism.

The consolidation of his one-man rule is unlikely to face any significant opposition in the media, which is overwhelmingly pro-government following a series of crackdowns on opponents.

In a somewhat prophetic Freudian slip three days ago, however, a pro-government television station accidentally broadcast the election “results” which showed Mr Erdogan being re-elected with 53 percent of the vote.