At the insistence of Turkey’s President Tayip Erdogan, the country held a referendum in 20172018 which radically transformed the office of President. The referendum transformed the Turkish government from a largely parliamentary democracy to a Presidential system in which the President has the power to appoint all the top people including the ministers and even the Vice President. The President can intervene in the legal system and the President has the power to impose a state of emergency.

The new powers only took effect after the next election. In April, Erdogan called snap elections. Most of the polls showed that in the election Erdogan was unlikely to win on the first round. However, when the votes were counted Erdogan received 51% of the vote, while his closest rival Muharrem Ince won just over 30% of the vote. For the first time, parliamentary elections were held at the same time. Erdogan’s AK party won 42.5% of the vote for the parliament. The AK party together with the MHP party who they are in coalition with will give Erdogan a comfortable 343 out of the 600 in the parliament. One of Erdogan's first acts after being reelected was to appoint his son-inlaw to be Justice Minister.