Turgut Özal

Nation Alliance's presidential candidate and Republican People's Party (CHP) Chair Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu said on April 16 that they aim to reach the level of development that late Turkish President Turgut Özal had set.

Fevzi Çakmakçı, 70, who has been involved in the art of inlay for 63 years, which he learned from his grandfather when he was seven years old, fears that his ancestral profession will be lost as there is no one to maintain the art technique for future generations after him.

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on April 17 condemned the latest move by Greece on appointing the chief mufti and Athens' treatment of Turkish descendants in Western Thrace.

Turkey's Yıldırım Akbulut, who served as both prime minister and parliament speaker, passed away on April 14 in Ankara, the Turkish capital. He was 86.

A parliamentarian for nearly two decades - from 1983 to 2002 - Akbulut had been receiving treatment at Ankara University Hospital.

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visited the tombs of three former leaders on April 17, one day after Turkey voted in favor of shifting to an executive presidential system in a constitutional referendum. 

Erdoğan visited the tombs of former president Turgut Özal and former prime ministers Necmettin Erbakan and Adnan Menderes in Istanbul. 

 Turkey is voting in a constitutional referendum that will decide whether to replace the current parliamentary system with an executive presidency.

The vote on April 16 is the seventh referendum in modern Turkish history. The results of previous referendums are as follows: 

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has previously said, "Let's assume I will have one or two deputies. The president - me or somebody else - will have one or two deputies. When the president is abroad, then one of the two or the only one deputy will be the acting president." 

There have been statements that our Prophet Mohammed had a hadith which said that "yes" would come out of the ballot box. The person who has said this is journalist and politician Şevki Yılmaz, the same person who claimed that late President Turgut Özal was martyred by mysterious powers.

The economic reforms kicked off in Turkey in the 1980s caused lasting changes not limited to the economic sphere. Almost all areas of life were affected by the opening up of the Turkish economy.

As often it is said "size does not matter;" indeed the name of the governance system does not matter either. What matters is the name of the governance system of a country or functionality, accountability, effectiveness of governance in that country.