President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan announced new appointments on Monday for several high-level jobs, including Chief of General Staff and chief security and foreign policy adviser.
Erdoğan appointed Akif Çağatay Kılıç as his new chief adviser on security and foreign policy according to a decree published in the Official Gazette. Musa Avsever, head of the Turkish Armed Forces’ (TSK) Land Forces Command, was appointed as interim Chief of General Staff. He will also retain his current post during his interim tenure.
Haluk Görgün, CEO of Aselsan, a major contractor of the TSK, was appointed as the new chair of the Presidency of Defense Industries (SSB), the top defense agency in charge of key state-sponsored projects.
Erdoğan also appointed Davut Gül, governor of the southern province of Gaziantep, as the new governor of Istanbul, Türkiye’s most populated city, as the former governor Ali Yerlikaya was assigned to the post of interior minister in the new Cabinet announced by the president on Saturday.
It is unclear whether Avsever will continue as the army chief. Outside the exceptional cases, such as the appointment of the Chief of General Staff to another post, the Chief of General Staff is picked among long-serving generals by the Supreme Military Council, headed by the president and usually in August meetings of the council. Under current regulations, the army chief is required to serve in TSK for 44 years in total. Avsever rose to the rank of general in 2003 and served in various posts under Chief of General Staff and Land Forces Commander before his appointment as Land Forces Commander in 2021. He was the head of the 2nd Army Command during July 15, 2016 coup attempt, perpetrated by military officers linked to the Gülenist Terror Group (FETÖ). Avsever was targeted by FETÖ in the notorious Ergenekon trials orchestrated by the terrorist group’s infiltrators in the judiciary.
Akif Çağatay Kılıç has long been a key name close to Erdoğan and retained top posts in his Justice and Development Party (AK Party). In his early political career, Kılıç served as an aide to Erdoğan during the latter’s tenure as prime minister and was his personal interpreter during trips abroad. He later served as a lawmaker and as minister of youth and sports between 2013 and 2017. He was elected as a lawmaker again in the 2018 elections and was heading the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament.
Haluk Görgün, an electrical engineer and professor, was the first head of the control and automation engineering department of the prestigious Yıldız Technical University in Istanbul. During his lengthy academic career in which he served as deputy rector of the same university and rector of Gebze Technical University, Görgün was recognized for his work for cooperation between universities and industries. He was elected as a board member of Aselsan in 2017 and appointed as CEO of the company one year later. In this capacity, he also served as general manager of the company. Aselsan was founded in 1975 to cater to the telecommunications needs of the TSK. Originally a manufacturer of communication systems for the army, it branched out in the subsequent decades, also producing electronic optics systems, thermal cameras, missile warning systems, etc. In 2013, it became the world’s 74th-largest defense company in terms of earnings. Today, it is one of the leading companies in both defense and civilian technologies.
In his new post, Görgün will oversee a conglomerate of defense agencies tasked with cooperation with private companies in the country’s bid to develop a self-dependent, locally producing defense industry.
More appointments are expected in key posts in the coming days after Türkiye ushered in a new era following May 28 election victory for President Erdoğan, now the longest-serving Turkish leader. Erdoğan unveiled his new Cabinet over the weekend.