Turkey’s outgoing Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan was on Thursday sworn in as Presient as opponents who accuse him of authoritarianism after more than a decade in power walked out of the ceremony.
Erdogan, 60, took the oath in Ankara to begin a five-year mandate in which he has vowed to build a “new Turkey” by pushing through a new constitution and driving on with an ambitious development programme.
Deputies of the Opposition Republican People’s Party, who accuse Erdogan of violating the constitution, noisily walked out of parliament just before he was sworn in.
Erdogan has made clear he wants to wield genuine executive power as President after becoming the first directly elected head of state, taking 52 per cent of the vote in the August 10 poll.