a href="/myfiles/Images/2014/08/12/me04_big.jpg" title="A presidential election campaign banner of Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, with a slogan that reads "Man of the nation", hangs on a street near his ruling AK Party headquarters in Ankara, Monday. — Reuters " A presidential election campaign banner of Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, with a slogan that reads "Man of the nation", hangs on a street near his ruling AK Party headquarters in Ankara, Monday. — Reuters ANKARA — Turkish president-elect Tayyip Erdogan began the process of picking his successor as prime minister on Monday, a figure he hopes will triumph in next year's general election and secure his goal of forging a powerful presidency. Erdogan's victory in the country's first direct ballot for the head of state on Sunday marks a turning point for Turkey, taking the European Union candidate nation and NATO member a step closer to the presidential system he has long coveted. But it will be a turbulent journey, demanding a stronger parliamentary majority for his AK Party and the support of the next prime minister if he is to push through the constitutional changes needed to create the beefed-up role. “Today is a new day, a milestone for Turkey, the birthday of Turkey, of its rebirth from the ashes,” Erdogan, 60, told thousands of supporters in a victory speech from the balcony of the AK Party headquarters in Ankara late on Sunday. Opponents fear an increasingly authoritarian state. Erdogan chaired a meeting of the party's highest decision-making board on Monday, the first step in a process that will culminate with the naming of his replacement as prime minister once he is inaugurated as president on Aug. 28. The AK Party will hold an extraordinary convention on Aug. 27, party spokesman Huseyin Celik said, at which it will agree on a new party leader, a figure Erdogan is then expected to ask to form a new government. He will want a staunch loyalist to fill the role. Unable to campaign for the AK Party once he becomes president, he needs a figure with enough grass roots support to mobilize voters and ensure a stronger majority in parliamentary polls next June. “This is the first step of this long-term presidential agenda,” Sinan Ulgen, head of the Istanbul-based Center for Economic and Foreign Policy Studies, said of Erdogan's victory on Sunday. “It is going to be a hugely difficult and uphill battle, even for an immensely successful and astute politician like Erdogan,” he said. Investors initially welcomed Erdogan's triumph on hopes that it would ensure continuity after nearly 12 years of AK Party rule. But the mood later soured, as thoughts turned to the political uncertainty that lies ahead. Senior AK officials say Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu, who has strong support within the party bureaucracy and has been Erdogan's right-hand man internationally, is the top choice to succeed him, although former transport minister Binali Yildirim is also trying to position himself for the job. President Abdullah Gul, long seen as a potential future prime minister, on Monday signaled a return to politics after his term expires on Aug. 28, saying he would play a role in the ruling AK Party he co-founded with Erdogan. — Reuter
