There has been an uproar over Erdoğan's statement from opposition parties, with some critics claiming that bestowing more executive powers in the hands of Erdoğan will likely intensify Turkey's drift toward one-man rule, some even fearing that he would resemble Adolf Hitler, who was also elected by popular vote but then turned Germany into a fascist dictatorship.
Citing Hitler's fascist Germany as an example for a presidential system shows that Erdoğan does not have an understanding of democracy, Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) parliamentary group deputy chairman Oktay Vural told Today's Zaman on Friday.
“Erdoğan's reference to Hitler's Germany shows us what kind of regime Erdoğan has planned,” he said. “Erdoğan's statement is an insult to Turkey's democracy. He cannot give examples of such fascist regimes to Turkey.”
Gürsel Tekin, the secretary-general of the Republican People's Party (CHP), said time will tell if Erdoğan's statement was really a slip of the tongue or a manifestation of his subconscious.
Speaking to Today's Zaman on Friday, Tekin said the CHP is clear on its position regarding a possible switch to a presidential system and that CHP leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu made this position clear to Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu when they met on Wednesday.
Tekin said that Erdoğan and his top legal advisor, Burhan Kuzu, the former head of Parliament's Constitution Commission, had tried everything in their power to try and create the rhetoric for a presidential system suitable for Erdoğan but failed. He said it is ironic that Erdoğan should find Hitler's Germany befitting for his vision of Turkey.
Erdoğan's statement comes days after AK Party spokesperson Ömer Çelik took a swing at the parliamentary system of governance Turkey currently uses, saying it was the same system that brought Hitler to power in Germany in the 1930s.
Speaking at a press conference after the meeting between Davutoğlu and Kılıçdaroğlu, Çelik claimed that a switch would allow for the strengthening of the independence of the judiciary, separation of powers and institutions enforcing checks and balances.
He also asserted that that the most important aspect of the proposed system is that the people will be directly in control of the political process.
Ayla Akat Ata, a former member of the pro-Kurdish Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), the precursor to the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP), told Today's Zaman on Friday that what Erdoğan said shows a “real state of obliviousness” on his part.
“Not even Germany refers to the Hitler era, or praises it. Hitler's goal of creating a state based on the concept of an exalted ethnic identity and its evolution into fascism did great harm, not just to the people of Germany, but to all humankind,” she said.
Noting that the Justice and Development Party (AK Party), to which Erdoğan still has strong ties to despite the constitutional requirement of impartiality, is unclear on the possible route to the presidential system Erdoğan desires, Ata claims it was Erdoğan's slip of the tongue that really shows what the government is striving to implement.
“I wish he had given an example, not of the Germany under Hitler, but of today's Germany, which has a federal system of governance and binds its citizens together through a social contract,” she said.
Erdoğan is the staunchest supporter of the formation of a “Turkish-style” presidential system that he claims will help the country's development by eliminating "double-headedness" in state governance and thus pave the way for a more effective decision-making system.
On Aug. 12, he bluntly pointed to his desire for a switch to a presidential system, saying at a meeting with members of civil society organizations: "You can accept it or not. Turkey's governmental system has been de-facto changed in this regard. What should be done now is to finalize the legal framework of this de-facto situation with a new constitution.”
