ANKARA (Sputnik) — In a presidential system, a president heads both the state and the government.
Turkey has been a parliamentary democracy since the republic’s creation in 1923, electing the president and the prime minister.
"The existing system is an abnormality. It is incredibly difficult for a system to run these functions with a prime minister and president, both elected by the people," Erdogan told civil society representatives in Ankara, as cited by the Daily Sabah newspaper.
Erdogan assured civil society activists that the transition was not a personal issue for him. He argued that an elected head of state must play more than merely a symbolic role in governing the country.
Turkish opposition has been accusing Erdogan, elected president in August 2014, of attempts to pave the way toward authoritarianism in Turkey.
