Columnist of pro-government newspaper wishes for ‘technocracy in Turkey’
Kemal Öztürk, former head of Turkey’s state-run Anadolu News Agency and columnist for pro-government newspaper Yeni Şafak, recently said during a program on CNN Türk ‘it would more suiting for Erdoğan to form a government consisting of businessmen, professional executives, and leaders of different sectors’, if the constitutional amendments are approved and the presidential system is accepted.
Giving former CEO of Coca Cola, Muhtar Kent, as an example of a potential minister, Öztürk said: “How nice it would be if Muhtar Kent, for example, was to be a minister, along with other businessmen, and run the council of ministers like running a firm.”
President Erdoğan had also made comments in recent past signaling his favoring of technocracy. At an awards ceremony in 2015, Erdoğan had said: “You look at people who are against the presidential system and you see that they want Turkey to continue to be run by a system that has been damaged by cold war and coups… Insisting on this current system is not fair for our nation. Do you know what I wish for? I wish for Turkey to be run just as a corporation is run. Otherwise, they put on shackles on your ankles…”