ABSTRACT
After briefly reviewing the changing constitutional status and political role of the President of the Republic in Turkey’s parliamentary system, as well as the contexts and motives of the propositions to shift to a presidential system in the 1990s, this chapter discusses why and how the seat of presidency has become a battle ground between the AKP and the secular establishment and why and how the AKP leader Erdoğan transformed it into an executive position concentrating all powers at the expense of democratic principles. The chapter ends with an evaluation of the first ever elections for executive presidency in 2018.
