Kosachev: appointment of Yildirim as Prime Minister is technical

Appointment of Binali Yildirim to the post of Turkey’s Prime Minister was a technical decision, the chairman of Russian Federation Council’s International Affairs Committee Konstantin Kosachev said.

"A technical appointment of a technical prime minister took place in Turkey with a rather obvious aim - to secure country’s transition from the parliamentary system to presidential," Kosachev said. He noted that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan managed to get the decision that he needed "by approval by an absolute majority at the emergency meeting of the Justice and Development Party." 

As for the former Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, "in this sense, he was not convenient for Erdogan" because "he obviously did not share the president’s plans to reshape the constitutional system to suit himself" and was rather popular both in the party and in the country "unlike Binali Yildirim who replaced him on this post," he added.

"It looks like his main quality is loyalty to Erdogan and readiness to unquestioningly fulfill his ideas," the Russian lawmaker said.

Talking about possible consequences of cabinet reshuffle, Kosachev noted that "it is hard to say because the main problem is clearly not the new prime minister."

"Davutoglu, though an insignificant and symbolic counterweight, has gone and been replaced by ‘a team of administrators," TASS cited Kosachev as saying.