Erdogan Appoints General Guler As New Chief of Turkish Military

After Gen. Hulusi Akar resigned from his post to become Defense Minister in the new presidential system, Gen. Yasar Guler, Commander of Ground Forces, has been named by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as new Chief of General Staff.

Gen. Guler who was the second commander in General Staff during a failed coup in 2016 was known to be fiercely loyal to Erdogan.

In the post-coup chaos that gripped the military with purges, he steered the process as Commander of Ground Forces in line with Erdogan’s policies.

His name was on the shortlist for the top post in NATO’s second largest army after Akar’s move to the Defense Ministry.

After his oath ceremony, President Erdogan immediately began to rule the country with presidential decrees issued on Monday. In a series of decrees, he brought new figures, removed organizational structures of ministries or restructured them and introduced new changes in the judicial system that envisages who can be judges.

He unveiled his cabinet on Monday. He named his son-in-law Berat Albayrak as Finance Minister, sending the Turkish lira plunging against the U.S. dollar.

The Turkish lira fell 3.6 percent to 4.74 per dollar before midnight in Istanbul on Monday.

On Tuesday, the lira recovered some of its losses. A presidential decree the requirement that Central Bank president serves for a five-year term by the prime minister and cabinet ministers.  From now on, President Erdogan will appoint its governor, deputies and monetary policy committee members for four-year terms in the office