Turkish Geopolitics after the General and Presidential Elections of 2018

16 May 2019. From 18:30 | Workshop | Spanish | IEMed, Barcelona

The constitutional change approved in the 2017 referendum, the results of which were contested both inside and outside the country due to the irregularities committed in the vote count, would give rise to a new presidential system, which currently concentrates all executive power in the Turkish president, to which new legislative powers are added, and great discretion in the appointment of public positions that decisively affect the judicial sector as well. While Parliament increases its number of seats to 600, its ability to control the government has been significantly impaired under the new system.

The new presidential system came into full force after the general and presidential elections of June 2018, which kept Tayyip Erdoğan in the presidency, at the same time as an electoral loss for the AKP in Parliament, which would achieve an absolute majority of the hand of an ultra-nationalist party, the MHP.

For Carmen Rodríguez, Turkish foreign policy was marked for a few years by the prospect of joining the EU despite the arrival of the AKP, the formation of Erdogan, to the government in 2002. But gradually this vision changed and frictions grew with the EU. Is Turkey important to the EU? At what stage are the accession negotiations of this state in the EU? And what are Turkey’s interests in the Mediterranean?