Analysis: new Turkish PM Yildirim cements power for Erdogan

The choice of Turkey’s new prime minister was not unexpected, but there may be surprises in store for Europe.

Binali Yildirim, a co-founder of Turkey’s ruling AK Party and former minister for transportation and communications, was elected at an extraordinary meeting of the party in Ankara, where the man seen as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s choice ran uncontested, winning about 80 per cent support.

Yildirim is best-known in Turkey for transforming the country’s transportation systems – projects that have bettered the lives of millions. He has been responsible for building 18,000km of highways, 29 airports and landmark projects such as Istanbul’s undersea Marmaray commuter train and third bridge over the Bosphorus.

Yildirim’s ties to Erdogan date back to the 1990s when the latter served as mayor of Istanbul and Yildirim was head of Istanbul’s IDO commuter ferry company.

Refugee issues

For Europe, the changing of the guard in Turkish politics may mean new difficulties. The flow of more than a million refugees and migrants into the continent last year, and a further 200,000 so far this year, mostly through Turkey, means Europe has been forced to offer millions of euro and eased visa regulations in return for Ankara’s help.

The number seeking to reach Europe has fallen but largely because Macedonia has closed its border with Greece, not because Turkey has taken any substantive action to fulfil its obligations in the March 18th deal.

Turkey presents a quandary for western governments. As a Nato ally, European capitals are required to back their co-member. Ankara also faces the constant threat of Isis cells slipping through its southern border with Syria.

Crackdown on dissenters

But its war with Kurdish separatists has destroyed thousands of homes and led to hundreds of casualties. Turkey has been accused of not doing enough to secure its border with Isis-controlled Syria, and a government crackdown on dissenters, including press and opposition politicians, has strained relations with Europe.

Turkey’s outgoing prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who served as foreign minister between 2009 and 2014, led most of the migrant negotiation process with Europe, and has been viewed as a buffer between the West and the increasingly authoritarian Erdogan.

Although Davutoglu, the English-speaking academic and author of books on diplomacy, cultivated ties that portrayed Turkey’s positive role as a prism through which to understand the troubled Middle East, Yildirim can call upon no such skillset.

Critics say that is what Turkey’s president wants: to be the single authority on the international scene, as well as cementing power at home by introducing a presidential system of government that would see him the sole source of power inside Turkey.