By: NY-TIMES
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Erdogan was sworn on the Thursday[/caption]ISTANBUL — Turkey’s former prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, was sworn in Thursday as the country’s first directly elected president, a position from which he is expected to continue to exercise power for at least another five years.
Speaking at his inauguration in Ankara, the capital, Mr. Erdogan said, “The era of the old Turkey is over,” a reference to previous secular governments over which the military exercised near-total influence.
The event at the presidential palace was attended by senior representatives from about 90 countries, including several heads of state, but no leaders from Western Europe.
“We are now in an era of a new Turkey that carries the spirit of the Republic,” he added. Analysts say Mr. Erdogan envisions a country that is economically rising, dominant in the Middle East and socially conservative to the core.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Erdogan took the oath of office in Parliament, where he vowed to safeguard the existence and independence of the state and honor the Constitution, adhering to the principles of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey.
A majority of the main opposition deputies, including the chairman, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, boycotted the ceremony by walking out before Mr. Erdogan delivered his oath. One opposition deputy hurled a booklet at the parliamentary speaker, Cemil Cicek, as he presented the presidential mandate.
Mr. Erdogan, who has governed Turkey for more than a decade, received almost 52 percent of the vote in the country’s first direct presidential election on Aug. 10.
He won broad popularity during his tenure as prime minister for sharply reducing the influence of the military in politics, facilitating religious expression that had been suppressed under the former ruling secular elite and transforming the country into a regional economic power.
Mr. Erdogan is now considered the most powerful Turkish political figure since Ataturk. While the president’s role has been largely ceremonial and less powerful than that of the prime minister, Mr. Erdogan has vowed to become an active head of state, exercising all his constitutional powers.
On Thursday, shortly after taking the oath of office, Mr. Erdogan appointed the former foreign minister Ahmet Davutoglu as prime minister, as expected, with the task of forming a new government, which is to be announced on Friday.
The intelligence chief, Hakan Fidan, and the minister of European Union affairs, Mevlut Cavusoglu, are among the top contenders for the post of foreign minister.
Mr. Davutoglu, a loyal party member and longtime ally of Mr. Erdogan’s, has also taken the reins of the governing Justice and Development Party, or A.K.P., which has held power for 12 years.
“Erdogan’s legacy is our honor and will be defended until the end,” Mr. Davutoglu said Wednesday at the party’s congress, where he was formally elected as leader.
Although Mr. Erdogan must sever ties with the A.K.P. in his new role, he has made little secret of his intent to work hand in hand with Mr. Davutoglu to restructure the Constitution to move from a parliamentary system to a presidential one.