New revelations from İlnur Çevik, a former senior advisor to President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, have exposed the hollow nature of Turkey’s presidential advisory system — revealing it to be little more than a political stage prop, designed to project an image of consultation while Erdoğan centralized all decision-making power in his own hands.
İlnur Çevik, a veteran journalist and political figure, served as editor-in-chief of Hürriyet Daily News — later renamed Turkish Daily News — and previously advised Prime Minister Süleyman Demirel in the early 1990s. In 2016, Çevik was appointed as a senior advisor to Erdoğan, a position he held for nearly seven years. Despite his proximity to the presidency, Çevik now admits that advisors were largely sidelined and had little to no influence.
“I kept writing reports, but I don’t even know if they ever reached him,” Çevik said, highlighting the disconnect between advisors and Erdoğan. “Senior advisors could not easily access the president.”
According to Çevik, Erdoğan personally attended only one meeting of the Security and Foreign Policy Board — and even then, the gathering was dominated by casual conversation rather than serious policy discussion. “That day was the first and last time we saw him. After that, he never attended again; the meetings were run by İbrahim Kalın,” Çevik revealed.
The marginalization extended to foreign trips as well. While Erdoğan and his ministers traveled together, advisors flew separately — left with no official duties, no scheduled meetings, and often without even basic logistical support.
“We would travel abroad, but we didn’t know why we were going. We didn’t know what we were supposed to do. We just sat in hotel rooms,” Çevik said. “Had prior contacts been made, had meetings been arranged, we could have achieved something — but that never happened. It wasn’t even a touristic trip, because the embassies couldn’t even provide us with cars.”
Rather than tapping into the knowledge and expertise of dozens of appointed figures, Erdoğan’s advisory system functioned primarily as political theater — creating the illusion of collective governance while real decisions were concentrated within a shrinking, loyal inner circle.
Çevik’s testimony paints a revealing portrait of Turkey’s executive system: one where advisory councils served not as engines of strategic thinking, but as props — decorative figures meant to project legitimacy, not to exercise influence.
In Çevik’s own words: “We just sat in hotel rooms. It wasn’t even a touristic trip.”
Çevik’s decision to speak out now is not only driven by personal bitterness or dismissal, but also by the visible decline of Erdoğan’s power — and by a deeper instinct common among many in Turkey’s political establishment: to worship those in power, or those seen as future power-holders. For years after stepping away from public life, Çevik remained silent. His timing suggests something more calculated: a recognition that Erdoğan’s long-standing aura of invincibility is collapsing. With the president facing internal dissent, economic crisis, and fractures within his ruling coalition, figures like Ekrem İmamoğlu are increasingly viewed as potential successors. In this shifting environment, Çevik appears to be repositioning himself — distancing from a fading regime while signaling alignment with the next possible centers of power.
Instead of resigning in protest, Çevik opted to enjoy the privileges that came with his hollow title — basking in the status of a so-called senior advisor, taking part in foreign trips, and staying close to the power he now criticizes.
By: News About Turkey (NAT)
