Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.

Reuters – Tayyip Erdogan will cement his position as modern Turkey’s most powerful leader when he is sworn in as president on Thursday, advancing his drive to reshape the country but heralding what critics fear will be an increasingly authoritarian rule.

In a final speech to supporters of his AK Party on Wednesday he spoke of his move from the prime minister’s office to the presidential palace as the birth of a new Turkey. But he vowed that the AK’s mission to elevate the country as a major regional power would go on unchanged after he left party politics.

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