Who is the man nominated for the Prime Ministership of Turkey?

On May 19, the ruling Justice and Development Party in Turkey nominated Binali Yıldırım, the Minister of Transport and Communications, as its candidate for the position of Prime Minister. Traditionally, those who are the head of the majority party's faction in the Turkish Parliament are also chosen as the head of government. Mr. Yıldırım will thus succeed Ahmet Davutoğlu, who recently resigned from the position of Secretary-General of the Justice and Development Party and Prime Minister of the country. He is a graduate of shipbuilding and maritime sciences from Istanbul University and has gained experience working in Scandinavian countries. He later worked in the maritime transport sector in Istanbul and earned a good reputation by modernizing and improving this transport network. Mr. Yıldırım is an old friend of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the President of Turkey. He has collaborated with Mr. Erdoğan since about 22 years ago when Mr. Erdoğan became the Mayor of Istanbul and was one of the founders of the Justice and Development Party in 2001. In 2002, when this party won a landslide victory in the general elections, Mr. Yıldırım was appointed Minister of Transport. He has overseen several major transport projects, including a bridge built over the Bosphorus Strait, but in 2004, the derailment of a passenger train led opposition parties to call for his resignation. In the famous corruption scandal involving senior Turkish government officials in December 2013, his name and that of his brother-in-law were also mentioned. In that case, several prosecutors filed cases against senior government officials and the Justice and Development Party. After surviving this scandal, the government took measures that resulted in the troublesome prosecutors being arrested, and ultimately the investigation was closed. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Justice and Development Party described this scandal as a 'coup plot by a parallel state' led by Fethullah Gülen, an exiled cleric living in the United States. Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu, the leader of the opposition Republican People's Party, referred to Binali Yıldırım as the 'man of millions of dollars' in 2014 and accused him of misusing state funds to cover the expenses of the Justice and Development Party. According to him, Binali Yıldırım was involved in the sale of an important television network and a newspaper worth $630 million, and the prosecutor's office later announced that this amount was illegally obtained and was supposed to be paid to projects managed by the Justice and Development Party and its leaders. Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his government denied these accusations. Mr. Yıldırım is the second person to reach the position of Prime Minister in the presidential system that has been implemented in Turkey since 2012. In recent years, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has promoted changes that concentrate the executive power of the country in the hands of the president, and consequently, there is little need to maintain the position of Prime Minister. Such a change in the Turkish constitution requires two-thirds of positive votes in a public referendum. Although the Justice and Development Party has received at least 50% of the votes or more in all elections over the past decade, this level of support is not sufficient to change Turkey's governmental system. As a significant portion of Turkish voters oppose such a change, Mr. Erdoğan has decided to establish an unofficial but practical presidential system in which he personally makes all major decisions, and the Prime Minister merely executes these decisions. As a result, Mr. Yıldırım, like the previous Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, will not have much role in important decision-making. Mr. Erdoğan remains the most powerful figure who will make all significant decisions and govern Turkey.