Power in one hand

"Those who are against the presidential system are wrong and unfortunately lying," President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said. 

Here is the gist of that group's criticism though; this system accumulates power in a single hand, it aims at creating a one-man rule, whoever is elected, will establish an authoritarian regime if they get hold of those powers.

As a matter of fact, this is not an observation voiced only by those who say "no."

"We are accumulating power to one person; so there will no longer be incidents like throwing the constitution booklet away," Erdoğan said Feb. 18 at a rally organized under the name "opening ceremony." 

He was referring to the economic crisis that sparked in 2001 when then-president Ahmet Necdet Sezer threw a constitution text to the representatives of the coalition government at a meeting.  

The subject of criticism is nothing but what the president has said, to have all power in one hand.

Meanwhile, preventing such incidents cannot be made possible by constitutional changes.

This is fore and foremost about political courtesy. In fact, throughout the republic's history, such an incident occurred only once. Just once in 94 years.

So should we change the whole administrative and governance system of the country just for that? A person who will be elected for five years is going to rule the country with decrees without being held accountable by the parliament.

This is the criticism.

 "The president taking power for five years will fulfill his responsibilities without being held accountable to anyone but the people," the president said at the rally. 

The president himself confirms the criticism that is being voiced. The president will be held...