Incoming Prime Minister Davutoğlu to announce new cabinet

Incoming Prime Minister Davutoğlu to announce new cabinet

Incoming Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu. (Photo: Today's Zaman))

August 28, 2014, Thursday/ 13:22:53/ TODAY'S ZAMAN / ISTANBUL

Incoming Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, the former foreign minister and acting prime minister of the existing Cabinet, is set to submit a list of the new council of ministers on Friday after receiving President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan's approval. 

The new Cabinet will likely be announced the same day. 

There are plenty of rumors in the political circles of Ankara concerning which names will be included in the new government and which ministers will be left out in the cold. Expectations are high that Labor and Social Security Minister Faruk Çelik, Minister of Customs and Trade Hayati Yazıcı, Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekçi, Development Minister Cevdet Yılmaz and Food, Agriculture and Animal Husbandry Minister Mehdi Eker may be left out of the new cabinet. Deputy Prime Minister for Economy Ali Babacan is expected to retain his seat. 

Former Transportation Minister Binali Yıldırım may be appointed deputy prime minister, while Davutoğlu may reserve another deputy prime minister position for Numan Kurtulmuş, one of the deputy chairpersons of the Justice and Development Party (AK Party). Bülent Arınç, a current deputy prime minister and the government spokesperson, may also lose his position in the formation of the new cabinet. 

Speculation is rife concerning who the new foreign minister will be. Deputy Prime Minister Beşir Atalay and Interior Minister Efkan Ala, two heavyweights in the AK Party, are said to be supporting the appointment of the head of the National Intelligence Organization (MİT), Hakan Fidan, to this important ministerial position. However, Erdoğan wants him to continue in his post and favors European Union Affairs Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu instead. Davutoğlu's preference, according to political circles, is İbrahim Kalın, the prime minister's chief foreign policy advisor. 

Davutoğlu, who will rise to third place on the Turkish state protocol list today, bade farewell to Foreign Ministry staff on Thursday. 

Paying a visit to the headquarters of the Foreign Ministry in Ankara, Davutoğlu addressed personnel of the ministry and expressed his gratitude for their hard work during his term in office. 
  
Speaking of the many developments he oversaw at the ministry during his time there, Davutoğlu stated that Turkey's self-confidence in foreign policy had increased. He also said Turkish diplomacy has achieved successes in recent years, adding that it will achieve even more with the new minister who will succeed him.  
  
Davutoğlu mentioned the Mosul hostage crisis briefly, remarking that he hopes to see the 49 Turks who have been held hostage at the hands of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) in Iraq for nearly 80 days come home very soon.  
  
ISIL, an al-Qaeda splinter group which has recently styled itself as the “Islamic State,” kidnapped 49 people from the Turkish Consulate General in Mosul on June 11, including Consul General Öztürk Yılmaz, diplomatic staff, special forces members and dependents. ISIL entered the consulate after threatening the diplomats with a bomb attack.

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