President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan unveiled the new 16-minister cabinet under the new presidential system, saying the governance system will make the executive branch more efficient.
Erdoğan announced his sole Vice President as Fuat Oktay, a former head of the Prime Ministry Disaster and Emergency Management Authority (AFAD). Oktay's most recent position was the position of undersecretary in the Prime Ministry. Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu and Interior Minister Süleyman Soylu kept their former posts.
The appointment of former energy minister Berat Albayrak as the new minister of Treasury and Finance and Chief of Staff General Hulusi Akar joining the government as defense minister were the most notable changes in the cabinet.
In the first presidential decree of the new system, the number of ministers in the cabinet was reduced from 25 to 16, with seven of them subsumed into related ministries.
The first cabinet meeting under the new government will convene Friday.
Here's the full list of the Turkish government's new cabinet:
Minister of Interior: Süleyman Soylu
Minister of Justice: Abdulhamit Gül
Minister of Foreign Affairs: Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu
Minister of Defense: Hulusi Akar
Minister of Treasury and Finance: Berat Albayrak
Minister of Health: Fahrettin Koca
- Koca was the chairman of the board of trustees at the private Medipol University.
Minister of Energy and Natural Resources: Fatih Dönmez
- Dönmez was an advisor at the energy ministry.
Minister of Trade: Ruhsar Pekcan
- Pekcan was the deputy chairwoman of the Women Entrepreneurs Council at the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges (TOBB).
Minister of Culture and Tourism: Mehmet Ersoy
- Ersoy was the chief executive of private company ETS Tourism.
Minister of Agriculture and Forestry: Bekir Pakdemirli
- Pakdemirli was a board member at GSM operator Turkcell, lender Albaraka Türk and the country's largest grocery chain BİM.
Minister of Environment and Urbanization: Murat Kurum
- Kurum was the head of Emlak Konut, a state-run real estate developer.
Minister of National Education: Ziya Selçuk
- Selçuk was the head of the board of education under the education ministry.
Minister of Industry and Development: Mustafa Varank
- Varank previously served as an advisor to the president.
Minister of Transport and Infrastructure: Cahit Turan
- Turan also previously served as an advisor to the president.
Minister of Labor, Social Services and Family: Zehra Zümrüt Selçuk
- One of the two women in the cabinet, Selçuk was the Ankara representative of the Women and Democracy Association (KADEM).
Minister of Youth and Sports: Mehmet Muharrem Kasapoğlu
- Kasapoğlu was head of state-owned sports betting company Spor Toto.
