Turkey's Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan greets his supporters during the Extraordinary Congress of the ruling AK Party (AKP) to choose a new leader of the party, ahead of his inauguration as president, in Ankara August 27, 2014. REUTERS/Umit Bektas
ANKARA (Reuters) - Tayyip Erdogan will cement his position as modern Turkey's most powerful leader when he is sworn in as president on Thursday, advancing his drive to reshape the country but heralding what critics fear will be an increasingly authoritarian rule.
In a final speech to supporters of his AK Party on Wednesday he spoke of his move from the prime minister's office to the presidential palace as the birth of a new Turkey. But he vowed that the AK's mission to elevate the country as a major regional power would go on unchanged after he left party politics.
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