Turkey’s new presidential system and a changing west

Implications for Turkish foreign policy and Turkish-West relations

• Kemal Kirişci and Ilke Toygür
• Brookings

Executive Summary

In July 2018, having triumphed in the presidential elections the previous month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan began to formally transform Turkey’s long-standing parliamentary system into a heavily centralized presidential one.

The new system entrenched his one-man authoritarian rule at home and is having profound implications for the making and substance of Turkish foreign policy as well as Turkey’s relations with the West.

This transition has taken place amid an…

• Turkey’s new presidential…