From soccer to sultan: Who is Recep Tayyip Erdogan?
Turkey’s incumbent president, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is the frontrunner in June 24’s snap election. But who is he, what does he believe, and where will he take Turkey if he returns to power?
Early life
Born into a religious family in Istanbul on February 26, 1954, Erdogan studied at several Islamic schools from an early age, including Istanbul Imam Hatip School in 1965 - a religious vocational institution.
In 1978, he married Emine Erdogan, who to this day regularly campaigns by his side and appears at social and humanitarian gatherings.
Erdogan was a semi-professional soccer player between 1969 and 1982 when he was at college, but after graduating with a degree in economics from Marmara University, he left the football field and committed himself to his Islamic ideology in the framework of the National Salvation Party (MSP).
Young Islamic politician
Erdogan was influenced by the teachings of MSP leader Necmettin Erbakan. He led the MSP’s Youth Branch in Beyoglu and Istanbul in 1976.
The party was shut down in 1981, but Erbakan went on to co-found the Islamic Rafaat (Welfare) Party in 1983. Erdogan quickly joined.
The young Erdogan assumed various jobs within the party, including tasks “aimed at urging the participation of women and youth in politics, thus taking important steps toward helping politics to be espoused and respected among the masses,” reads his biography on the Turkish presidency website.
His active role in politics, his participation in social events, and his involvement in key projects won him broad support in the 1994 local elections, which saw him swept into office as Istanbul’s metropolitan mayor.
In 1998, the Welfare Party was accused of threatening the country’s secularist principles and declared unconstitutional by Turkey's constitutional court. Erdogan was a prominent speaker in the ensuing protests and was jailed for incitement in 1999 after reciting an Islamic poem by the Turkish poet Ziya Gokalp. “Minarets are bayonets. Domes are helmets. Mosques are barracks. Believers are soldiers,” the poem read.
He served just four months of his ten-month prison sentence after agreeing to pay a fine, but was barred from holding public office.
Erdogan’s lightbulb moment
Although barred from office, Erdogan co-founded a new political force - the Justice and Development Party (AKP) - in 2001. The party shot to success in 2002, winning two thirds of parliamentary seats, ending the era of coalition governments in Turkey.
Only the AKP and its rival Republican People’s Party (CHP) passed the 10 percent threshold required to enter parliament, but Erdogan’s party was able to form a government independently.
Abdullah Gul, the AKP’s co-founder, became prime minister in 2002, but passed the job to Erdogan in 2003 after the party lifted his ban from office.
Erdogan’s party came to power amid an economic crisis and an ongoing state of emergency in place since the 1980 military coup.
The fiery orator served as prime minister from 2003 to 2014, when he became president. Under the Turkish constitution, Erdogan had to resign from the AKP to assume the presidency. However, the constitution was later amended, allowing him to return.
Erdogan’s role as president was ceremonial, so he championed a constitutional referendum to increase presidential powers. The referendum passed in 2017 by a 51-49 margin. The country’s parliamentary system will change into a presidential model after the new president is sworn in.
The new system dissolves the position of prime minister, whose powers go to the president. However, opposition candidates have promised to bring back the parliamentary system and even reduce the powers of the president.
Erdogan’s detractors accuse him of creating an authoritarian state to suppress dissent. After he barely escaped removal in a failed military coup in 2016, the state cracked down on followers of the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara blames for ordering the coup.
Erdogan’s government also targeted the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), jailing its former co-chairs Figen Yuksekdag and Selahattin Demirtas.
Demirtas is running against Erdogan from behind bars.
A number of HDP MPs were also imprisoned, while the membership of 11 more was revoked by AKP, CHP and MHP deputies in the parliament.
The coup also resulted in the ongoing state of emergency, which rights groups say limits the freedoms of speech and the press. Few media outlets dare to criticize the government or Erdogan’s party, or cover HDP campaigning because they fear being shut down or charged with terrorism offenses.
Through snap elections, Erdogan wants to strengthen his mandate to address Turkey’s struggling economy, tackle domestic strife, and green light his sometimes controversial foreign policies.
Erdogan is again seeking votes from the country’s Kurdish minority, which has supported him in past elections, especially in urban areas.
However, Erdogan has since launched military operations in the Kurdish city of Afrin in northern Syria and escalated its targeting of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Kurdistan Region. Additionally, his comments against Kurdish education in Turkish schools and his opposition to the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum could harm that support.
A student of economics, Erdogan has boosted the country’s economy, but at the same time the value of the Lira against the US dollar has fallen. He has accused local and foreign investors of trying to harm the Lira, threatening to “expel” them from the country.
Hard times
Erdogan thought he would easily win the June 24 election when he declared it in April, believing his only rival would be Meral Aksener, the candidate and leader of the IYI (Good) Party. Erdogan was sure he could beat her due to her severed relations with Kurds when she was interior minister in 1990s, when Kurds were imprisoned and the state was in a hot conflict with the PKK.
Erdogan was confident the main opposition party, CHP, would not be able to field a strong candidate. However, the party’s long-term MP Muharrem Ince has enjoyed widespread support.
Erdogan is clearly rattled by Ince’s success. He regularly replays Ince’s speeches and comments on them during his own rallies. According to recent surveys, the election may enter a second round, with a run-off between Erdogan and Ince.
In this case, the Kurds may play kingmaker. The HDP has hinted at supporting Ince. Its spokesperson say the party will support “anyone” who stays in the run-off except Erdogan.
Human rights groups and the opposition fear the state of emergency might be exploited by the ruling AKP to stay in power after the country’s electoral body (YSK) issues a decree saying unstamped ballot papers in the June elections will be considered valid.
If Erdogan fails to hold on to power next week, he may very well hand the extensive powers he has long craved to a hostile rival.
Early life
Born into a religious family in Istanbul on February 26, 1954, Erdogan studied at several Islamic schools from an early age, including Istanbul Imam Hatip School in 1965 - a religious vocational institution.
In 1978, he married Emine Erdogan, who to this day regularly campaigns by his side and appears at social and humanitarian gatherings.
Erdogan was a semi-professional soccer player between 1969 and 1982 when he was at college, but after graduating with a degree in economics from Marmara University, he left the football field and committed himself to his Islamic ideology in the framework of the National Salvation Party (MSP).
Young Islamic politician
Erdogan was influenced by the teachings of MSP leader Necmettin Erbakan. He led the MSP’s Youth Branch in Beyoglu and Istanbul in 1976.
The party was shut down in 1981, but Erbakan went on to co-found the Islamic Rafaat (Welfare) Party in 1983. Erdogan quickly joined.
The young Erdogan assumed various jobs within the party, including tasks “aimed at urging the participation of women and youth in politics, thus taking important steps toward helping politics to be espoused and respected among the masses,” reads his biography on the Turkish presidency website.
His active role in politics, his participation in social events, and his involvement in key projects won him broad support in the 1994 local elections, which saw him swept into office as Istanbul’s metropolitan mayor.
In 1998, the Welfare Party was accused of threatening the country’s secularist principles and declared unconstitutional by Turkey's constitutional court. Erdogan was a prominent speaker in the ensuing protests and was jailed for incitement in 1999 after reciting an Islamic poem by the Turkish poet Ziya Gokalp. “Minarets are bayonets. Domes are helmets. Mosques are barracks. Believers are soldiers,” the poem read.
He served just four months of his ten-month prison sentence after agreeing to pay a fine, but was barred from holding public office.
Erdogan’s lightbulb moment
Although barred from office, Erdogan co-founded a new political force - the Justice and Development Party (AKP) - in 2001. The party shot to success in 2002, winning two thirds of parliamentary seats, ending the era of coalition governments in Turkey.
Only the AKP and its rival Republican People’s Party (CHP) passed the 10 percent threshold required to enter parliament, but Erdogan’s party was able to form a government independently.
Abdullah Gul, the AKP’s co-founder, became prime minister in 2002, but passed the job to Erdogan in 2003 after the party lifted his ban from office.
Erdogan’s party came to power amid an economic crisis and an ongoing state of emergency in place since the 1980 military coup.
The fiery orator served as prime minister from 2003 to 2014, when he became president. Under the Turkish constitution, Erdogan had to resign from the AKP to assume the presidency. However, the constitution was later amended, allowing him to return.
Erdogan’s role as president was ceremonial, so he championed a constitutional referendum to increase presidential powers. The referendum passed in 2017 by a 51-49 margin. The country’s parliamentary system will change into a presidential model after the new president is sworn in.
The new system dissolves the position of prime minister, whose powers go to the president. However, opposition candidates have promised to bring back the parliamentary system and even reduce the powers of the president.
Erdogan’s detractors accuse him of creating an authoritarian state to suppress dissent. After he barely escaped removal in a failed military coup in 2016, the state cracked down on followers of the US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara blames for ordering the coup.
Erdogan’s government also targeted the pro-Kurdish Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP), jailing its former co-chairs Figen Yuksekdag and Selahattin Demirtas.
Demirtas is running against Erdogan from behind bars.
A number of HDP MPs were also imprisoned, while the membership of 11 more was revoked by AKP, CHP and MHP deputies in the parliament.
The coup also resulted in the ongoing state of emergency, which rights groups say limits the freedoms of speech and the press. Few media outlets dare to criticize the government or Erdogan’s party, or cover HDP campaigning because they fear being shut down or charged with terrorism offenses.
Through snap elections, Erdogan wants to strengthen his mandate to address Turkey’s struggling economy, tackle domestic strife, and green light his sometimes controversial foreign policies.
Erdogan is again seeking votes from the country’s Kurdish minority, which has supported him in past elections, especially in urban areas.
However, Erdogan has since launched military operations in the Kurdish city of Afrin in northern Syria and escalated its targeting of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in the Kurdistan Region. Additionally, his comments against Kurdish education in Turkish schools and his opposition to the Kurdistan Region’s independence referendum could harm that support.
A student of economics, Erdogan has boosted the country’s economy, but at the same time the value of the Lira against the US dollar has fallen. He has accused local and foreign investors of trying to harm the Lira, threatening to “expel” them from the country.
Hard times
Erdogan thought he would easily win the June 24 election when he declared it in April, believing his only rival would be Meral Aksener, the candidate and leader of the IYI (Good) Party. Erdogan was sure he could beat her due to her severed relations with Kurds when she was interior minister in 1990s, when Kurds were imprisoned and the state was in a hot conflict with the PKK.
Erdogan was confident the main opposition party, CHP, would not be able to field a strong candidate. However, the party’s long-term MP Muharrem Ince has enjoyed widespread support.
Erdogan is clearly rattled by Ince’s success. He regularly replays Ince’s speeches and comments on them during his own rallies. According to recent surveys, the election may enter a second round, with a run-off between Erdogan and Ince.
In this case, the Kurds may play kingmaker. The HDP has hinted at supporting Ince. Its spokesperson say the party will support “anyone” who stays in the run-off except Erdogan.
Human rights groups and the opposition fear the state of emergency might be exploited by the ruling AKP to stay in power after the country’s electoral body (YSK) issues a decree saying unstamped ballot papers in the June elections will be considered valid.
If Erdogan fails to hold on to power next week, he may very well hand the extensive powers he has long craved to a hostile rival.