Erdogan rejects Turkish Interior Minister's resignation following criticism of his handling of the coronavirus

The coronavirus has revealed the vulnerabilities of the Executive led by Recep Tayyip Erdogan.  The management of this pandemic has increased the tension between the Turkish president and the leaders of the town councils of the main cities of the country, in the hands of the opposition.  In this scenario, Turkish Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu resigned on Sunday after the controversy caused by the strict curfew decreed last Friday in at least 31 provinces of the country, including Istanbul and Ankara, to stop the spread of the coronavirus. 

The minister was criticised after the government announced in a statement that a 48-hour curfew would be imposed from midnight onwards. The country's citizens panicked and took to the streets to buy food and basic goods, causing the social distancing measures taken in the previous weeks to become a dead letter.   

Thus, Turkey's interior minister, known for his tough policies against government critics, announced via the social network Twitter his decision to resign following complaints about the strict curfew. "I apologize to my beloved nation, which I never meant to harm, and to my beloved president, to whom I will be loyal until the end of my life," he said in a statement posted on the social network. In the same statement, Soylu regretted that "this type of situation has occurred" and insisted on the fact that the curfew had been decreed "of goodwill to curb some of the contagion over the weekend". "I am leaving my post at the Ministry of the Interior, which I have held honestly," the statement concluded. 

Meanwhile, the country's president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has rejected the resignation of one of the most influential men in his executive and has urged Süleyman Soylu to remain in his post despite the criticism received. "The minister's resignation hasn't been accepted, he will continue with his duty," the president's office said in an official statement issued on Sunday. In the same statement, the Turkish leader praised Süleyman Soylu's efforts in his fight against terrorism and his work to contain the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. 
 

The newspaper Ahval News has indicated that hours before Erdogan rejected Soylu's resignation, the hashtag 'We don't accept resignation', #İstafayıKabulEtmiyoruz, quickly became a trending topic on Twitter. For several hours, some of the leading pro-Erdogan media figures tweeted a series of messages praising Soylu's role in government. Journalist Fatih Tezcan said the decision to resign "would upset the nation". On the other hand, Cemil Barlas and Hilal Kaplan, two media figures related to the Pelican Group, an informal power group with close ties to Erdogan, requested the president to reject the resignation. Both used the social network Twitter to assure that "the decision to resign was a mistake".  

This is not the first time that Erdogan has faced an unexpected resignation of one of the pillars of his government. In 2015, the head of Turkish intelligence, Hakan Fidan, resigned from his position to become a candidate for the then Prime Minister Davutoglu's Justice and Development Party (AKP). Erdogan later rejected the resignation and Fidan returned to the leadership of the Turkish Intelligence Agency, MIT, according to Ahval News. 

Casualties in the Erdogan government have been occurring over the last few days. Transport Minister Mehmet Cahit Turhan was dismissed two weeks ago after his cabinet was criticised for calling for a tender to build a huge canal in Istanbul province amidst the outbreak of the coronavirus.
 

The opposition has also criticized the Executive led by Erdogan for making such a decision. "Curfews to combat the pandemic shouldn't be imposed so quickly," criticised Istanbul's mayor, Ekrem Imamoglu, as reported by the Bloomberg news agency.  Imamoglu explained that because it was such a sudden decision, Istanbul was left in the dark as to which services could be provided and which could not. "Decisions taken unilaterally only serve to create more panic and confusion," he said. 

Similarly, the Republican People's Party (CHP) has lamented that the way in which the closure was announced had undermined efforts to contain the outbreak of coronavirus in Turkey. "A decision that should be made by public health became a threat to public health due to lack of planning," said CHP spokesman Faik Oztrak. "The sacrifice of people who have been isolated for days has been in vain," he added. 
 

The Turkish lira fell more than 1% against the U.S. dollar after Soylu announced his resignation. The economic crisis that has intensified in the country as a result of this pandemic threatens to take its toll on the presidential system that Erdogan has worked so hard to build. If the finances of this country were already weak before the pandemic, now the combination of the public health crisis and a president whose ambitions have no limits has led to thousands and thousands of people losing their jobs. Al Monitor predicts that this crisis seems destined to leave Turkey with some 10 million people unemployed. 

The curfew imposed last Friday was the strictest measure taken by the Turkish government so far to reduce the spread of COVID-19. Until then, this measure was only mandatory for those under 20 and over 65. In addition, the Eurasian nation restricted domestic travel, closed schools, bars and cafes and suspended the prayers, among other measures. Health Minister Fahrettin Koca announced on Sunday that at least 97 people had died of coronavirus, bringing the number of deaths from the disease to 1,198 in the country. 

As the number of cases in Turkey has increased, stricter restrictions have been applied to contain the outbreak. Erdogan's path to presidentialism has been undermined by the decision of local administrations to raise funds to help those most affected by the pandemic. The opposition constantly accuses Erdogan of authoritarianism, because of the president's attempts to restrict the powers of local administrations in large cities. Power in Turkey has been concentrated in the hands of one person in recent years: the president. Erdogan fears that this pandemic will gradually dismember his executive and, now more than ever, he is seeking solutions to prevent this from happening.