Erdogan Proud of Bilateral Ties Between Morocco and Turkey

The appointment of military officers will be made on Victory Day, Aug. 30, every year but this date may also be changed by the president.

He will have sweeping new powers, including over the judiciary and the ability to rule by decree.

"The pace at which he (Erdogan) is moving to tighten his grip is alarming and, in response, Turkish financial assets have come under pressure", said Jason Tuvey, senior emerging markets economist at Capital Economics, in a note to clients.

Erdogan's restructuring is the most significant adjustment of the country's political system since the formal establishment of modern Turkey.

"Erdogan, 64, says the new, powerful executive presidency is vital to drive economic growth, ensure security after a failed 2016 military coup and safeguard Turkey from conflict across its southern border in Syria and Iraq". As head of the executive branch, Erodgan will have the power to issue decrees with the force of law, prepare the budget subject to parliament's approval, dissolve parliament and call for new presidential and parliamentary elections, and appoint high-level officials, including ministers and some top judges. Erdogan is expected to name a streamlined cabinet of 16 ministers on Monday evening after a ceremony at the presidential palace for more than 7,000 guests, including Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who is wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announces the new Turkish cabinet in Ankara, on July 9, 2018.

The lira, which has lost almost a fifth of its value against the dollar this year, dropped almost 3 per cent to 4.74 to the USA currency after the cabinet announcement.

Current Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu could, in theory, continue in his job but reports have said Erdogan may choose his spokesman, Ibrahim Kalin, or even spy chief Hakan Fidan to succeed him. "We are leaving behind the system that has in the past cost our country a heavy price in political and economic chaos".

On the eve of Monday's inauguration authorities dismissed more than 18,000 state employees - majority from the police and army - in what the government said would be the final decree under emergency rule imposed following a failed 2016 coup.

"When you scrap the five-year term you remove this shield", he said.

Just as Ataturk transformed an impoverished nation at the eastern edge of Europe into a secular, Western-facing republic, Erdogan has fought to bring Islamic values back into public life and lift millions of pious Turks - long ostracized by the secular elite - out of poverty. "In other words, Turkey will be an institutionalized autocracy". North Atlantic Treaty Organisation member Turkey's relations with its Western allies have been strained by disputes with the United States over military strategy in Syria and by European Union criticism of Ankara's large-scale purges of state institutions, armed forces, police and media following the failed coup.

Likewise, the departure of market-friendly ministers such as Mehmet Simsek, the well regarded former deputy prime minister, and Naci Agbal, previously the finance minister, has also undermined confidence.