"Erdoan" and "Erdogan" redirect here. For other people called Erdoan, see Erdoan (name).
Recep Tayyip Erdoan (Turkish pronunciation:[edep tjjip do()n]( listen); born 26 February 1954) is the President of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the Prime Minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as the Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. He founded the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2001 and led it to three general election victories in 2002, 2007 and 2011 before standing down as leader upon his election as President in 2014. Originating from an Islamist political background and as a self-described conservative democrat, his administration has overseen social conservative and liberal economic policies.[5] His political agenda and ideals are often referred to as Erdoanism.[6]
Erdoan was a semi-professional footballer playing for Kasmpaa before being elected as the Mayor of Istanbul from the Islamist Welfare Party in 1994. He was stripped and banned from office and imprisoned for four months for the recitation of a poem in a political speech in 1998[7] after which he abandoned openly Islamist politics and established the moderate conservative AKP in 2001. The AKP won a landslide victory in the 2002 general election, with the party's co-founder Abdullah Gl becoming Prime Minister until his government annulled Erdoan's ban from political office. Erdoan subsequently became Prime Minister in March 2003 after winning a seat in a by-election held in Siirt.[8]
As part of his '2023 vision' for the centenary of the Turkish Republic, Erdoan's government oversaw accession negotiations for Turkey's membership of the European Union, an economic recovery following a financial crash in 2001, two successful constitutional referendums in 2007 and 2010, a Solution process with Kurdish militants, an allegedly Neo-Ottoman foreign policy and investments in infrastructure that included new roads, airports, and a high-speed train network.[9][10] With the help of Fethullah Glen's Cemaat Movement, Erdoan was able to curb the political power of the military through the controversial Sledgehammer and Ergenekon court cases. In late 2012, his government began peace negotiations with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to end the ongoing PKK insurgency that began in 1978. The ceasefire broke down in 2015, leading to a renewed escalation in conflict. In 2016, a coup d'tat was unsuccessfully attempted against Erdoan and Turkish state institutions. This was followed by purges and an ongoing state of emergency.
Nationwide protests against the perceived authoritarianism of Erdoan's government began in May 2013, with the internationally criticised police crackdown resulting in 22 deaths and the stalling of EU membership negotiations. Following a split with long-time ally Fethullah Glen, Erdoan brought about large-scale judicial reforms that were criticised for threatening judicial independence, but which Erdoan insisted were necessary to purge sympathisers of the preacher Fethullah Gulen. A US$100billion government corruption scandal in 2013 led to the arrests of Erdoan's close allies, with Erdoan himself incriminated after a recording was released on social media.[11][12][13] Erdoan's government has since come under fire for alleged human rights violations and crackdown on press and social media, having blocked access to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube on numerous occasions. Erdoan's government lifted the bans upon court orders.[15][16][17] Opposition journalists and politicians have criticised authoritarian tendencies.[18][19] Analysts suggest that Turkey is a majoritarian democracy.[20][21]
Erdoan's supporters point out that since the attempted coup, press restrictions are changing, Erdoan's government dropped charges against the secular Dogan Group, including Hurriyet paper after it was alleged that the $4.5 billion tax fraud charge was initially perpetrated by Gulenist officers.[22] Erdoan enthusiasts also highlight the fact that in the aftermath of the coup attempt, Erdoan issued a Presidential pardon against those who "insulted" him.[23] Erdoan detractors have noted that under Erdoan, more journalists have been incarcerated in Turkey than in any other country, including North Korea.[24] Detractors have also pointed out the fact that the April referendum essentially nullified the traditional legal "check" of parliamentary fiscal review, that parliament had previously held over his executive branch of government.[25] Detractors have claimed that Erdoan's unceasing efforts at broadening his executive powers while also minimizing his executive accountability may amount to the "fall of Turkish democracy,"[26] and the "birth of a dictator."[27]
Erdoan was born in the Kasmpaa neighborhood of Istanbul to which his family had moved from Rize Province. Erdoan allegedly said in 2003, "I'm a Georgian, my family is a Georgian family which migrated from Batumi to Rize."[28][29] However, in a 2014 televised interview on the NTV news network, he said, "You wouldn't believe the things they have said about me. They have said I am Georgian ... even with much uglier things, they have called me Armenian, but I am Turkish."[30][31]
Erdoan spent his early childhood in Rize, where his father was a member of the Turkish Coast Guard.[32] His summer holidays were mostly spent in Gneysu, Rize, where his family originates from. Throughout his life he often returned to this spiritual home, and in 2015 he opened a vast mosque on a mountaintop near this village.[33] The family returned to Istanbul when Erdoan was 13 years old.[32]
As a teenager, he sold lemonade and sesame buns (simit) on the streets of the city's rougher districts to earn extra money.[32] Brought up in an observant Muslim family, Erdoan graduated from Kasmpaa Piyale primary school in 1965, and mam Hatip school, a religious vocational high school, in 1973. He received his high school diploma from Eyp High School. He subsequently studied Business Administration at the Aksaray School of Economics and Commercial Sciences, now known as Marmara University's Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences[1]although several Turkish sources dispute that he graduated.[2][3][4]
In his youth, Erdoan played semi-professional football at a local club.[1][34][35]Fenerbahe wanted him to transfer to the club but his father prevented it.[36] The stadium of the local football club in the district where he grew up, Kasmpaa S.K. is named after him.
Erdoan married Emine Glbaran (born 1955, Siirt) on 4 July 1978.[37] They have two sons; Ahmet Burak and Necmettin Bilal, and two daughters, Esra and Smeyye.[37] His father, Ahmet Erdoan, died in 1988 and his 88-year-old mother, Tenzile Erdoan, died in 2011.[38] He is a member of the Community of skenderpaa, a Turkish sufistic community of Naqshbandi tariqah.[39][40]
While studying business administration and playing semi-professional football, Erdoan engaged in politics by joining the National Turkish Student Union, an anti-communist action group. In 1974, he wrote, directed and played the lead role in the play Maskomya, which presented Freemasonry, Communism and Judaism as evil.[41] In 1976, he became the head of the Beyolu youth branch of the Islamist National Salvation Party (MSP),[42] and was later promoted to chair of the Istanbul youth branch of the party.
After the 1980 military coup, Erdoan followed most of Necmettin Erbakan's followers into the Islamist Welfare Party. He became the party's Beyolu district chair in 1984, and in 1985 he became the chair of the Istanbul city branch. He was elected to parliament in 1991, but barred from taking his seat.[citation needed]
In the local elections of 27 March 1994, Erdoan was elected Mayor of Istanbul, with a plurality (25.19%) of the popular vote. Many feared that he would impose Islamic law; however, he was pragmatic in office, tackling chronic problems in Istanbul including water shortage, pollution and traffic chaos. The water shortage problem was solved with the laying of hundreds of kilometers of new pipelines. The garbage problem was solved with the establishment of state-of-the-art recycling facilities. While Erdoan was in office, air pollution was reduced through a plan developed to switch to natural gas. He changed the public buses to environmentally friendly ones. The city's traffic and transportation jams were reduced with more than fifty bridges, viaducts, and highways built. He took precautions to prevent corruption, using measures to ensure that municipal funds were used prudently. He paid back a major portion of Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality's two billion dollar debt and invested four billion dollars in the city.[43]
Erdoan initiated the first roundtable of mayors during the Istanbul conference, which led to a global, organized movement of mayors. A seven-member international jury from the United Nations unanimously awarded Erdoan the UN-HABITAT award.[44][dead link]
In 1998, the fundamentalist Welfare Party was declared unconstitutional on the grounds of threatening the secularism of Turkey and was shut down by the Turkish constitutional court. Erdoan became a prominent speaker at demonstrations held by his party colleagues.[45]
In December 1997 in Siirt, Erdoan recited a poem from a work written by Ziya Gkalp, a pan-Turkish activist of the early 20th century.[46] His recitation included verses translated as "The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers...."[32] which are not in the original version of the poem. Erdoan said the poem had been approved by the education ministry to be published in textbooks.[47] Under article 312/2 of the Turkish penal code his recitation was regarded as an incitement to violence and religious or racial hatred.[48] He was given a ten-month prison sentence of which he served four months, from 24 March 1999 to 27 July 1999.[49] Due to his conviction, Erdoan was forced to give up his mayoral position. The conviction also stipulated a political ban, which prevented him from participating in parliamentary elections.
In 2001, Erdoan established the Justice and Development Party (AKP).[50] The AKP won a landslide victory in the 2002 election, taking nearly two-thirds of the seats. Erdoan could not become Prime Minister as he was still banned from politics by the judiciary for his speech in Siirt. Gl became the Prime Minister instead. In December 2002, the Supreme Election Board canceled the general election results from Siirt due to voting irregularities and scheduled a new election for 9 February 2003. By this time, party leader Erdoan was able to run for parliament due to a legal change made possible by the opposition Republican People's Party. The AKP duly listed Erdoan as a candidate for the rescheduled election, which he won, becoming Prime Minister after Gl handed over the post.[51]
In 2009, Prime Minister Erdoan's government announced a plan to help end the quarter-century-long TurkeyKurdistan Workers' Party conflict that had cost more than 40,000 lives. The government's plan, supported by the European Union, allowed the Kurdish language to be used in all broadcast media and political campaigns, and restored Kurdish names to cities and towns that had been given Turkish ones.[52] Erdoan said, "We took a courageous step to resolve chronic issues that constitute an obstacle along Turkey's development, progression and empowerment".[52] Erdoan passed a partial amnesty to reduce penalties faced by many members of the Kurdish guerrilla movement PKK who had surrendered to the government.[53] On 23 November 2011, during a televised meeting of his party in Ankara, he apologised on behalf of the state for the Dersim massacre, where many Alevis and Zazas were killed.[54]
Prime Minister Erdoan expressed multiple times that Turkey would acknowledge the mass killings of up to 1.5million Armenians during World War I as genocide only after a thorough investigation by a joint Turkish-Armenian commission consisting of historians, archaeologists, political scientists and other experts.[55][56][bettersourceneeded] In 2005, Erdoan and the main opposition party leader Deniz Baykal wrote a letter to Armenian President Robert Kocharian, proposing the creation of a joint Turkish-Armenian commission.[57] Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian rejected the offer because he asserted that the proposal itself was "insincere and not serious." He added: "This issue cannot be considered at historical level with Turks, who themselves politicized the problem."[58][59]
In December 2008, Erdoan criticised the I Apologize campaign by Turkish intellectuals to recognize the Armenian Genocide, saying, "I neither accept nor support this campaign. We did not commit a crime, therefore we do not need to apologise... It will not have any benefit other than stirring up trouble, disturbing our peace and undoing the steps which have been taken."[60] In November 2009, he said, "it's not possible for a Muslim to commit genocide."[61][62]
In 2011, Erdoan ordered the tearing-down of the Statue of Humanity, a Turkish-Armenian friendship monument in Kars, which was commissioned in 2006 and represented a metaphor of the rapprochement of the two countries after many years of dispute over the events of 1915. Erdoan justified the removal by stating that the monument was offensively close to the tomb of an 11th-century Islamic scholar, and that its shadow ruined the view of that site, while Kars municipality officials said it was illegally erected in a protected area. However, the former mayor of Kars who approved the original construction of the monument said the municipality was destroying not just a "monument to humanity" but "humanity itself". The demolition was not unopposed; among its detractors were several Turkish artists. Two of them, the painter Bedri Baykam and his associate, Pyramid Art Gallery general coordinator Tugba Kurtulmus, were stabbed after a meeting with other artists at the Istanbul Akatlar cultural center.[63]
On 23 April 2014, Erdoan's office issued a statement in nine languages (including two dialects of Armenian), offering condolences for the mass killings of Armenians and stating that the events of 1915 had inhumane consequences. The statement described the mass killings as the two nations' shared pain and said: "Having experienced events which had inhumane consequences such as relocation during the First World War, (it) should not prevent Turks and Armenians from establishing compassion and mutually humane attitudes among one another".[64]
During Erdoan's time as Prime Minister, the far-reaching powers of the 1991 Anti-Terror Law were reduced and the Democratic initiative process was initiated, with the goal to improve democratic standards in general and the rights of ethnic and religious minorities in particular. However, after Turkey's bid to join the European Union stalled, European officials noted a return to more authoritarian ways,[65] notably on freedom of speech,[66][67][68]freedom of the press[69][70][71] and Kurdish minority rights.[72][73][74][75] Demands by activists for the recognition of LGBT rights were publicly rejected by government members,[76] and members of the Turkish LGBT community were insulted by cabinet members.[77]
Reporters Without Borders observed a continuous decrease in Freedom of the Press during Erdoan's later terms, with a rank of around 100 on the Press Freedom Index during his first term and a rank of 154 out of a total of 179 countries in 2013.[78]Freedom House saw a slight recovery in later years and awarded Turkey a Press Freedom Score of 55/100 in 2012 after a low point of 48/100 in 2006.[79][80][81][82]
In 2011, Erdoan's government made legal reforms to return properties of Christian and Jewish minorities which were seized by the Turkish government in the 1930s.[83] The total value of the properties returned reached $2billion (USD).[84]
Under Erdoan, the Turkish government tightened the laws on the sale and consumption of alcohol, banning all advertising and increasing the tax on alcoholic beverages.[85] A law raising the legal drinking age from 18 to 24 was in place from 2011 until it was abolished in 2013.[citation needed]
Erdoan argues that the crackdown against Gulenists is a necessary measure, his supporters insist he is maintaining the rule of law, 6000 teachers were re-instated after it was shown they didn't have Gulenist links.[86]
In 2002, Erdoan inherited a Turkish economy that was beginning to recover from a recession as a result of reforms implemented by Kemal Dervi.[87] Erdoan supported Finance Minister Ali Babacan in enforcing macro-economic policies. Erdoan tried to attract more foreign investors to Turkey and lifted many government regulations. The cash-flow into the Turkish economy between 2002 and 2012 caused a growth of 64% in real GDP and a 43% increase in GDP per capita; considerably higher numbers were commonly advertised but these did not account for the inflation of the US dollar between 2002 and 2012.[88] The average annual growth in GDP per capita was 3.6%. The growth in real GDP between 2002 and 2012 was higher than the values from developed countries, but was close to average when developing countries are also taken into account. The ranking of the Turkish economy in terms of GDP moved slightly from 17 to 16 during this decade. A major consequence of the policies between 2002 and 2012 was the widening of the current account deficit from 600 million USD to 58 billion USD (2013 est.)[89]
Since 1961, Turkey has signed 19 IMF loan accords. Erdoan's government satisfied the budgetary and market requirements of the two during his administration and received every loan installment, the only time any Turkish government has done so.[90] Erdoan inherited a debt of $23.5billion to the IMF, which was reduced to $0.9billion in 2012. He decided not to sign a new deal. Turkey's debt to the IMF was thus declared to be completely paid and he announced that the IMF could borrow from Turkey.[91] In 2010, five-year credit default swaps for Turkey's sovereign debt were trading at a record low of 1.17%, below those of nine EU member countries and Russia.
In 2002, the Turkish Central Bank had $26.5billion in reserves. This amount reached $92.2billion in 2011. During Erdoan's leadership, inflation fell from 32% to 9.0% in 2004. Since then, Turkish inflation has continued to fluctuate around 9% and is still one of the highest inflation rates in the world.[92]
The Turkish public debt as a percentage of annual GDP declined from 74% in 2002 to 39% in 2009. In 2012, Turkey had a lower ratio of public debt to GDP than 21 of 27 members of the European Union and a lower budget deficit to GDP ratio than 23 of them.[93]
The unemployment rate increased from 10.3% in 2002 to 11.0% in 2010.[94]
In 2003, Erdoan's government pushed through the Labor Act, a comprehensive reform of Turkey's labor laws. The law greatly expanded the rights of employees, establishing a 45-hour workweek and limiting overtime work to 270 hours a year, provided legal protection against discrimination due to sex, religion, or political affiliation, prohibited discrimination between permanent and temporary workers, entitled employees terminated without "valid cause" to compensation, and mandated written contracts for employment arrangements lasting a year or more.[95][96]
Erdoan increased the budget of the Ministry of Education from 7.5billion lira in 2002 to 34billion lira in 2011, the highest share of the national budget given to one ministry.[97] Before his prime ministership the military received the highest share of the national budget. Compulsory education was increased from eight years to twelve.[98] In 2003, the Turkish government, together with UNICEF, started a campaign called "Come on girls, let's go to school!" (Turkish: Haydi Kzlar Okula!). The goal of this campaign was to close the gender-gap in primary school enrollment through the provision of a quality basic education for all girls, especially in southeast Turkey.[99]
In 2005, the parliament granted amnesty to students expelled from universities before 2003. The amnesty applied to students dismissed on academic or disciplinary grounds.[100] In 2004, textbooks became free of charge and since 2008 every province in Turkey has its own university.[101] During Erdoan's Premiership, the number of universities in Turkey nearly doubled, from 98 in 2002 to 186 in October 2012.[102]
The Prime Minister kept his campaign promises by starting the f@tih project in which all state schools, from preschool to high school level, received a total of 620,000 smart boards, while tablet computers were distributed to 17 million students and approximately one million teachers and administrators.[103]
Under Erdoan's government, the number of airports in Turkey increased from 26 to 50.[104] Between the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 and 2002, there had been 6000km of dual carriageway roads created. Between 2002 and 2011, another 13500km of expressway were built. Due to these measures, the number of motor accidents fell by 50 percent.[105] For the first time in Turkish history, high speed railway lines were constructed, and the country's high-speed train service began in 2009.[106] In 8 years, 1076km of railway were built and 5449km of railway renewed. The construction of Marmaray, an undersea rail tunnel under the Bosphorus strait, started in 2004. When completed, it will be the world's deepest undersea immersed tube tunnel.[citation needed] Construction of the 1.9km long Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge began in 2013.[107] The chosen name for the bridge led to protests by Alevis in Turkey because of the role Sultan Selim I, nicknamed "the Grim" due to his cruelty, played in the Ottoman persecution of Alevis.[108]
In March 2006, the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) held a press conference to publicly protest the obstruction of the appointment of judges to the high courts for over 10 months. The HSYK said Erdoan wanted to fill the vacant posts with his own appointees. Erdoan was accused of creating a rift with Turkey's highest court of appeal, the Yargtay, and high administrative court, the Dantay. Erdoan stated that the constitution gave the power to assign these posts to his elected party.[109]
In May 2007, the head of Turkey's High Court asked prosecutors to consider whether Erdoan should be charged over critical comments regarding the election of Abdullah Gl as President.[109] Erdoan said the ruling was "a disgrace to the justice system", and criticized the Constitutional Court which had invalidated a presidential vote because a boycott by other parties meant there was no quorum. Prosecutors investigated his earlier comments, including saying it had fired a "bullet at democracy". Tlay Tucu, head of the Constitutional Court, condemned Erdoan for "threats, insults and hostility" towards the justice system.[110]
The Turkish parliament agreed to reduce the age of candidacy to the parliament from 30 to 25 and abolished the death penalty in all instances, including war time.[citation needed]
Erdoan supported the continuation of Turkey's high population growth rate and, in 2008, commented that to ensure the Turkish population remained young every family would need to have at least three children.[111][112] He repeated this statement on numerous occasions.[113] In 2010, Turkey's population was estimated at 73,700,000, with a growth rate of 1.21% per annum (2009 figure).[114]
On 26 May 2012, answering the question of a reporter after a UN conference on population and development in Turkey, Erdoan said that abortion is murder, saying, "You either kill a baby in the mother's womb or you kill it after birth. In many cases [not all], there's no difference."[115]
Erdoan has stated that he opposes Turkey's high and growing rate of caesarean section births because he believes that they reduce the fertility of Turkish women, and he is in favor of limiting the number of such births in Turkish hospitals.[116][117]
In a 2010 meeting with women NGO representatives, asked why he kept addressing them exclusively as mothers, Erdoan said: "I do not believe in the equality of men and women. I believe in equal opportunities. Men and women are different and complementary."[118] In 2014, he addressed the Istanbul Women and Justice Summit of the Women and Democracy Association (Turkish: Kadn ve Demokrasi Dernei, or KADEM): "Our religion [Islam] has defined a position for women [in society]: motherhood. You cannot explain this to feminists because they don't accept the concept of motherhood." Calling for "equivalency" between the genders, he stated: "You cannot bring women and men into equal positions; that is against nature because their nature is different," while reaffirming that full equality regardless of gender before the law should be maintained.[119]
After assuming power in 2003, Erdoan's government embarked on a sweeping reform program of the Turkish healthcare system, called the Health Transformation Program (HTP), to greatly increase the quality of healthcare and protect all citizens from financial risks. Its introduction coincided with the period of sustained economic growth, allowing the Turkish government to put greater investments into the healthcare system. As part of the reforms, the "Green Card" program, which provides health benefits to the poor, was expanded in 2004.[120] The reform program aimed at increasing the ratio of private to state-run healthcare, which, along with long ques in state-run hospitals, resulted in the rise of private medical care in Turkey, forcing state-run hospitals to compete by increasing quality.
In April 2006, Erdoan unveiled a social security reform package demanded by the International Monetary Fund under a loan deal. The move, which Erdoan called one of the most radical reforms ever, was passed with fierce opposition. Turkey's three social security bodies were united under one roof, bringing equal health services and retirement benefits for members of all three bodies. The previous system had been criticized for reserving the best healthcare for civil servants and relegating others to wait in long queues. Under the second bill, everyone under the age of 18 years was entitled to free health services, irrespective of whether they pay premiums to any social security organization. The bill also envisages a gradual increase in the retirement age: starting from 2036, the retirement age will increase to 65 by 2048 for both women and men.[121]
In January 2008, the Turkish Parliament adopted a law to prohibit smoking in most public places. Erdoan is outspokenly anti-smoking.[122]
2013 Gezi Park protests against the perceived authoritarianism of Erdoan and his policies, starting from a small sit-in in Istanbul in defense of a city park.[123] After the police's intense reaction with tear gas, the protests grew each day. Faced by the largest mass protest in a decade, Erdoan made this controversial remark in a televised speech: "The police were there yesterday, they are there today, and they will be there tomorrow." After weeks of clashes in the streets of Istanbul, his government at first apologized to the protestors[124] and called for a plebiscite, but then ordered a crackdown on the protesters.[123][125]
In December 2013, Turkish police detained more than 50 people[126] and arrested 16 others, including the general manager of Halkbank and the sons of three government ministers, on charges of corruption.[127] Although Erdoan blamed foreign ambassadors and pro-Erdoan newspapers accused the United States or Israel of a plot, outside analysts attribute the arrests to a power struggle between the Prime Minister and Fethullah Glen. Glen, who lives in the U.S., leads a religious movement that had supported the AKP's rise to power. In late 2013, Erdoan's government proposed shutting down Turkish private schools, many of which are funded by Glen. Glen's supporters are believed to have wide influence in the police and judiciary in Turkey.[128]
In late December, Hrriyet and Yeni afak papers published comments by Erdoan stating that he believes he is the ultimate target of a corruption and bribery probe of his allies. The Turkish Prime Minister told journalists that anyone attempting to enmesh him in the scandal would be "left empty handed." Erdoan reshuffled his Cabinet on 25 December, replacing 10 ministers hours after three ministers, whose sons were detained in relation to the probe, resigned.[129]
A file containing five audio recordings of conversations between Erdoan and his son from a 26-hour period beginning 17 December 2013, in which he appeared to be instructing his son to conceal very large amounts of money, was posted to YouTube and widely discussed on social media.[130][131] On 26 February 2014, Erdoan acknowledged that his telephone had been tapped, but denied that the conversation was real, instead calling it an "immoral montage" that had been "dubbed" by combining other conversations. An analysis by Joshua Marpet of the United States, published by McClatchy, concluded that the recordings were "probably real", and if not, the fabrication was done with a sophistication he had not previously seen.[132]
On the night of 26 February 2014, Turkey's Parliament, dominated by Erdoan's Justice and Development Party, passed a bill that allowed the government the power to block Internet sites, subject to court review within three days, and granting it access to Internet traffic data. Another bill previously approved by a parliamentary committee would grant the MT intelligence service access to data held by the government, as well as private institutions and courts. The following day President Abdullah Gl approved placing an investigative agency that appoints judges and prosecutors under the control of Erdoan's justice minister.[132]
On 20 March, Erdoan made a speech promising to "rip out the roots" of the Twitter service. Hours later the telecommunications regulator BTK blocked DNS service to the site, citing four court orders the Turkish government had made requiring them to remove content to preserve privacy that had not been heeded. Sources covering the story attributed this to the use of Twitter to share links to the Erdoan recordings on YouTube.[133] Erdoan also threatened to ban Facebook. However, the block of Twitter proved ineffective, with traffic increasing a record 138%, and #TwitterisblockedinTurkey becoming the top trending term worldwide.[134] To circumvent the block, Google suggested Turks use Google Public DNS at 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, numbers which were soon graffitied in dozens of locations around Istanbul.[135][136] President Abdullah Gl criticized the Twitter ban, defying it himself.[137][138] Two months later, on 3 June, Turkey's telecommunications watchdog ordered the ban to be lifted, after a ruling by the Constitutional Court.[139]
On 1 July 2014, Erdoan was named the AKP's presidential candidate in the Turkish presidential election. His candidacy was announced by the Deputy President of the AKP, Mehmet Ali ahin.
Erdoan made a speech after the announcement and used the 'Erdoan logo' for the first time. The logo was criticised because it was very similar to the logo that U.S. President Barack Obama used in the 2008 presidential election.[140]
Erdoan was elected as the President of Turkey in the first round of the election with 51.79% of the vote, obviating the need for a run-off by winning over 50%. The joint candidate of the CHP, MHP and 13 other opposition parties, former Organisation of Islamic Co-operation general secretary Ekmeleddin hsanolu won 38.44% of the vote. The pro-Kurdish HDP candidate Selahattin Demirta won 9.76%.[141]
On 21 August, a 3-hour AKP Central Executive Committee meeting chaired by Erdoan selected Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutolu as candidate for the party leadership.
Erdoan's last public appearance before assuming the presidency was his parting speech during the AKP's first ever extraordinary congress on 27 August 2014, where his successor as party leader was to be elected. In a 110-minute speech, he criticised rival political parties for their opposition to his bid for the presidency and the solution process with the PKK, vowing to continue the fight against Fethullah Glen's 'parallel structure'. Erdoan further stated that his departure would not result in a loss of political vision or electoral support for the party.
Erdoan was one of 1,420 delegates who cast votes to elect the new leader. Ahmet Davutolu was the only candidate, having been handpicked by Erdoan as his successor in a party executive committee meeting on 21 August. Davutolu was unanimously elected with 100% of the vote and the support of 1,382 delegates. There were 6 invalid or blank votes.[citation needed]
The congress was criticised for lacking any reference to Mustafa Kemal Atatrk, as well as the lack of competition in the leadership election.
Erdoan took the oath of office on 28 August 2014 and became the 12th president of Turkey. He administered the new Prime Minister Ahmet Davutolu's oath on 29 August. When asked about his lower-than-expected 51.79% share of the vote, he allegedly responded, "there were even those who did not like the Prophet. I, however, won 52%."[142]
Assuming the role of President, Erdoan was criticized for openly stating that he would not maintain the tradition of presidential neutrality.[143] Erdoan has also stated his intention to pursue a more active role as President, such as utilising the President's rarely used cabinet-calling powers.[144] The political opposition has argued that Erdoan will continue to pursue his own political agenda, controlling the government, while his new Prime Minister Ahmet Davutolu would be docile and submissive.[5] One reason for this allegation was the fact that Erdoan himself chose Davutolu to succeed him as Prime Minister, meaning that Davutolu was unanimously elected leader unopposed.[clarification needed][145][146] Furthermore, the domination of loyal Erdoan supporters in Davutolu's cabinet has also fuelled speculation that Erdoan intends to exercise substantial control over the running of the government.[147]
Erdoan has also received criticism for the construction of a new palace called Ak Saray (pure white palace), which occupies approximately 50 acres of Atatrk Forest Farm (AO) in Ankara.[148][149] Since the AO is protected land, several court orders were issued to halt the construction of the new palace, though building work went on nonetheless.[150] The opposition described the move as a clear disregard for the rule of law.[151] The project was subject to heavy criticism and allegations were made; of corruption during the construction process, wildlife destruction and the complete obliteration of the zoo in the AO in order to make way for the new compound.[152] The fact that the palace is technically illegal has led to it being branded as the 'Ka-Ak Saray', the word kaak in Turkish meaning 'illegal'.[153]
Ak Saray was originally designed as a new office for the Prime Minister. However, upon assuming the presidency, Erdoan announced that the palace would become the new Presidential Palace, while the ankaya Kk will be used by the Prime Minister instead. The move was seen as a historic change since the ankaya Kk had been used as the iconic office of the presidency ever since its inception. The Ak Saray has almost 1,000 rooms and cost $350million (270million), leading to huge criticism at a time when mining accidents and workers' rights had been dominating the agenda.[154][155]
On 29 October 2014, Erdoan was due to hold a Republic Day reception in the new palace to commemorate the 91st anniversary of the Republic of Turkey and to officially inaugurate the Presidential Palace. However, after most invited participants announced that they would boycott the event and a mining accident occurred in the district of Ermenek in Karaman, the reception was cancelled.[156]
Amid claims that the Turkish government funds IS fighters, several Kurdish demonstrations broke out near the Turkish-Syrian border in protest against the government's inactivity.[157] These protests escalated during the fighting in the border town of Kobane, with 42 protestors being killed following a brutal police crackdown.[158][159] Voicing concerns that aid to Kurdish fighters would assist PKK rebels in resuming terrorist attacks against Turkey, Erdoan held bilateral talks with Barack Obama regarding IS during the 56 September 2014 NATO summit in Newport, Wales.[160][161] In early October, United States Vice President Joe Biden accused Turkey of funding IS, to which Erdoan angrily responded, "Biden has to apologize for his statements" adding that if no apology is made, Biden would become "history to me." Biden subsequently apologised.[162] In response to the U.S. request to use ncirlik Air Base to conduct air strikes against IS, Erdoan demanded that Bashar al-Assad be removed from power first.[163]
Turkey lost its bid for a Security Council seat in the United Nations during the 2014 election;[164] the unexpected result[165] is believed to have been a reaction to Erdoan's hostile treatment of ethnic Kurds fighting ISIS on the Syrian border[166][167] and a rebuke of his willingness to support IS-aligned insurgents opposed to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.[166][167]
As President, Erdoan has been a strong advocate of an executive presidency that would boost his own powers and has maintained an active influence over political affairs despite the symbolic nature of his office. In 2016, he was accused of forcing the resignation of Prime Minister Ahmet Davutolu due to his scepticism over the proposed presidential system, resulting in his replacement by close ally Binali Yldrm. He has also come under fire for constructing Ak Saray, the world's largest palace on Atatrk Forest Farm and Zoo for his own use as President and has been repeatedly accused of breaching the constitutional terms of his office by not maintaining political neutrality. In 2015, amid consistent allegations that he maintained financial links with Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant militants, revelations that the state was supplying arms to militant groups in Syria in the 2014 National Intelligence Organisation lorry scandal led to accusations of high treason.[168][169][170] In July 2015, Turkey became involved in the war against ISIS. The Turkish military has simultaneously launched airstrikes against Kurdistan Workers' Party bases in Iraq.[171] In July 2015, a raid by US special forces on a compound housing the Islamic State's "chief financial officer", Abu Sayyaf, produced evidence that Turkish officials directly dealt with ranking IS members.[172]
On 18 August 2016, Erdoan said that "terrorist organizations such as Daesh, Boko Haram and al-Qaeda were formed to harm Islam and ignite Islamophobia across the world." Furthermore, he said that "Daesh is a terrorist organization that casts a shadow, a dark pall over Islam. We could never take sides with Daesh."[173]
The President of Turkey is required to be neutral and independent from partisan politics and all presidents must pledge to adhere to these requirements whilst taking the oath of office. Breaking the presidential oath of office is a violation of the Constitution of Turkey. However, shortly after he assumed the presidency, the opposition accused Erdoan of breaking the terms of office by being openly partisan in his dealings with the AKP government.[174] In February 2015, Erdoan was widely condemned by the opposition for calling for people to vote for the AKP in the upcoming June 2015 general election.[175]
On 6 February 2015, while giving a speech at Bursa, Erdoan publicly called for 400 MPs at the next general election in order to push through constitutional changes, continue the Solution process with Kurdish rebels and establish a presidential system. Although he did not mention a specific party, only the AKP formally endorses these three policies. In addition, Erdoan made an indirect reference to the opposition and criticised them for allegedly being on the side of Fethullah Glen, which he said would not carry them into government. He also criticised the opposition's legal effort to prevent him from speaking publicly until the June 2015 general election.[176]
As President, Erdoan has overseen a revival of Ottoman tradition, greeting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with an Ottoman-style ceremony in the new presidential palace, with guards dressed in costumes representing founders of 16 Great Turkish Empires in history.[177] While serving as the Prime Minister of Turkey, Erdoan's AKP made references to the Ottoman era during election campaigns, such as calling their supporters 'grandsons of Ottomans' (Osmanl torunu).[178] This proved controversial, since it was perceived to be an open attack against the republican nature of modern Turkey founded by Mustafa Kemal Atatrk. In 2015, Erdoan made a statement in which he endorsed the old Ottoman term klliye to refer to university campuses rather than the standard Turkish word kamps.[179] Many critics have thus accused Erdoan of wanting to become an Ottoman sultan and abandon the secular and democratic credentials of the Republic.[180][181][182][183] When pressed on this issue in January 2015, Erdoan denied these claims and said that he would aim to be more like Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom rather than like an Ottoman sultan.[184]
President Erdoan and his government press for court action against the remaining free press in Turkey. The latest newspaper that has been seized is Zaman.[185] After the seizure Morton Abramowitz and Eric Edelman, former U.S. ambassadors to Turkey, condemned President Erdoan's actions in an opinion piece published by the Washington Post: "Clearly, democracy cannot flourish under Erdogan now."[186] "The overall pace of reforms in Turkey has not only slowed down but in some key areas, such as freedom of expression and the independence of the judiciary, there has been a regression, which is particularly worrying," rapporteur Kati Piri said in April 2016 after the European Parliament passed its annual progress report on Turkey.[187]
On 22 June 2016, President Recep Tayyip Erdoan said that he considered himself successful in "destroying" Turkish civil groups "working against the state",[188] a conclusion that had been confirmed some days earlier by Sedat Lainer, Professor of International Relations and rector of the anakkale Onsekiz Mart University: "Outlawing unarmed and peaceful opposition, sentencing people to unfair punishment under erroneous terror accusations, will feed genuine terrorism in Erdoan's Turkey. Guns and violence will become the sole alternative for legally expressing free thought."[189]
After the coup attempt, over 200 journalists were arrested and over 120 media outlets were closed. Cumhuriyet journalists were detained in November 2016 after a long-standing crackdown on the newspaper. Subsequently, Reporters Without Borders called Erdoan an "enemy of press freedom" and said that he "hides his aggressive dictatorship under a veneer of democracy".[190]
In a speech broadcast live on television, President Erdoan said on Friday, 11 March 2016: "I hope the constitutional court would not again attempt such ways which will open its existence and legitimacy up for debate".[191] On 26 February, Erdoan had said in a public speech that he did "neither respect nor accept" a constitutional court ruling that the detention of Can Dndar and Ekrem Gl from Cumhuriyet had violated their rights.[192]
In an interview to the news magazine Der Spiegel, the German minister of defence Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday, 11 March 2016, that the refugee crisis had made good cooperation between EU and Turkey an "existentially important" issue. "Therefore it is right to advance now negotiations on Turkey's EU accession".[193]
In its resolution "The functioning of democratic institutions in Turkey" from 22 June 2016, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe warned that "recent developments in Turkey pertaining to freedom of the media and of expression, erosion of the rule of law and the human rights violations in relation to anti-terrorism security operations in south-east Turkey have... raised serious questions about the functioning of its democratic institutions."[194][195]
On 15 July 2016, a coup d'tat was attempted by the military, with aims to remove Erdoan from government, however by the next day Erdoan's government managed to reassert effective control in the country.[196] Reportedly, no government official was arrested or harmed, which among other factors raised the suspicion of a false flag event staged by the government itself.[197][198]
Erdoan, as well as other government officials, have blamed an exiled cleric, and once an ally of Erdoan, Fethullah Glen, for staging the coup attempt.[199] Suleyman Soylu, Minister for Labor in Erdoan's government, accused the US of planning a coup to oust Erdoan.[200]
Erdoan, as well as other high-ranking Turkish government officials have issued repeated demands to the US to extradite Gllen.[201][202]
Following the coup attempt, there has been a significant deterioration in Turkey-US relations. European and other world leaders have expressed their concerns over the situation in Turkey, with many of them warning Erdoan not to use the coup attempt as an excuse for crackdown against his opponents.[203]
The rise of Islamic state and the collapse of the Kurdish peace process lead to a sharp rise in terrorist incidents in Turkey until 2016 Erdoan was accused by his critics of having a 'soft corner' for ISIS[204] However, after the attempted coup, Erdoan ordered the Turkish military into Syria to combat ISIS and Kurdish militant groups.[205] Erdoan's critics have decried purges in the education system and judiciary as undermining the rule of law[206] however Erdoan supporters argue this is a necessary measure as Gulen-linked schools cheated on entrance exams, requiring a purge in the education system and of the Gulen followers who then entered the judiciary.[207][208]
Erdoan's plan is "to reconstitute Turkey as a presidential system. The plan would create a centralized system that would enable him to better tackle Turkey's internal and external threats. One of the main hurdles allegedly standing in his way is Fethullah Gulen's movement ..."[209] In the aftermath of the 2016 Turkish coup d'tat attempt, a groundswell of national unity and consensus emerged against cracking down on the coup plotters with a National Unity rally held in Turkey that included Islamists, secularists, liberals and nationalists.[210][211] Erdoan has used this consensus to remove Gulen followers from the bureaucracy, curtail their role in NGOs, Turkey's Ministry of Religious Affairs and the Turkish military, with 149 Generals discharged.[212] In a foreign policy shift Erdoan ordered the Turkish Armed Forces into battle in Syria and has liberated towns from IS control.[213] As relations with Europe soured over in the aftermath of the attempted coup, Erdoan developed alternative relationships with Russia,[214][215] Saudi Arabia[216] and a "strategic partnership" with Pakistan,[217][218] with plans to cultivate relations through free trade agreements and deepening military relations for mutual co-operation with Turkey's regional allies.[219][220][221]
On 20 July 2016, President Erdoan declared the state of emergency, citing the coup d'tat attempt as justification.[222] It was first scheduled to last three months. The Turkish parliament approved this measure.[223] The state of emergency was later extended for another three months, amidst the ongoing 2016 Turkish purges including comprehensive purges of independent media and detention of tens of thousands of Turkish citizens politically opposed to Erdoan.[224]
Early during his prime ministership, Erdoan was praised as a role model for emerging Middle Eastern nations due to several reform packages initiated by his government which expanded religious freedoms and minority rights as part of accession negotiations with the European Union.[225] However, his government underwent several crises including the Sledgehammer and Ergenekon cases against the Turkish Armed Forces, corruption scandals, accusations of media intimidation, as well as the pursuit of an increasingly polarising political agenda; the opposition accused the government of inciting political hatred throughout the country. Central to the accusations of authoritarianism are Erdoan's controversial ties with exiled Islamic cleric and former ally Fethullah Glen, who has been accused of calling for the dismantling of the secular Turkish state in favour of an Islamic Republic, although Glen had been acquitted in 2006 of the charge, based on the same alleged statements, of trying to overturn the government.[226]
In response to criticism, Erdoan made a speech in May 2014 denouncing allegations of dictatorship, saying that the leader of the opposition, Kemal Kldarolu, who was there at the speech, would not be able to "roam the streets" freely if he was a dictator.[227] Kldarolu responded that political tensions would cease to exist if Erdoan stopped making his polarising speeches for three days.[228] One observer said it was a measure of the state of Turkish democracy that Prime Minister Ahmet Davutolu could openly threaten, on 20 December 2015, that, if his party did not win the election, his country's Kurds would endure a repeat of the era of the "white Toros", the Turkish name for the Renault 12, "a car associated with the gendarmarie's fearsome intelligence agents, who carried out thousands of extrajudicial executions of Kurdish nationalists during the 1990s."[229]
In February 2015, a 13-year-old child was arrested after allegedly criticising Erdoan on Facebook.[230] In 2016, a waiter was arrested for not serving tea to Erdoan.[231]
Erdoan referred to the Turkish novelist and Islamist ideologue, Necip Fazl Ksakrek, as his muse. Ksakrek was regarded by some analysts, such as Gnther Jikeli and Kemal Silay, as the source of his views on Jews.[232][233][234] Ksakrek's publications included the Turkish translation of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion and praise for industrialist Henry Ford's The International Jew, as well as a political program in which he wrote: "Chief among these treacherous and insidious elements to be cleansed are the Dnmeh and the Jews".[235][236][237]
A 2009 report issued by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, said that Erdoan "indirectly incites and encourages" antisemitism.[238] In 2013, Erdoan was placed second on the Simon Wiesenthal Center's list of the year's top ten antisemitic personalities, after Erdoan blamed the "interest rate lobby" as organizers of the mass protests against him in cities around the country in June 2013.[239] In another quote that was regarded as antisemitic, he said "When the word 'media' is pronounced, Israel and Israel's administration comes to mind. They have the ability to manipulate it as they wish." He then claimed that not only the international press but also Turkish newspapers were run by Israel.[240] During the campaign for the Turkish elections in June 2015, Erdoan accused The New York Times of being represented by "Jewish capital" after foreign media outlets expressed concern over the corrosion of freedom of expression in Turkey.[241][242][243]
When during a televised press conference he was asked if he believed a presidential system was possible in a unitary state he affirmed this and cited Nazi Germany as an example of how this is possible.[244] However, the Turkish president's office said that Erdoan was not advocating a Hitler-style government when he called for a state system with a strong executive. Furthermore, that the Turkish president had declared the Holocaust, anti-semitism and Islamophobia as crimes against humanity and that it was out of the question for him to cite Hitler's Germany as a good example.[245]
The judiciary has traditionally adhered to strict secular principles as outlined in the Constitution of Turkey. This resulted in the closing down of two former parties of which Erdoan was a member, namely the Welfare Party in 1998 and the Virtue Party in 2001. The judiciary was thus seen as a significant threat to the Justice and Development Party (AKP). In 2008, the Constitutional Court of Turkey heard a case in favour of closing down the AKP and banning 71 senior members from politics for five years. Although the AKP survived closure, it lost 50% of its state funding.
In April 2014, the President of the Constitutional Court, Haim Kl, accused Erdoan of damaging the credibility of the judiciary, labelling Erdoan's attempts to increase political control over the courts as 'desperate'.[246]
Both the military and judiciary were widely known for their secular credentials, both therefore representing a threat to Erdoan's moderately Islamist government. During the chaotic 2007 presidential election, the military issued an E-memorandum warning the government to keep within the boundaries of secularism when choosing a candidate. Regardless, Erdoan's close relations with Fethullah Glen and his Cemaat Movement allowed his government to maintain a degree of influence within the judiciary through Glen's supporters in high judicial and bureaucratic offices.[247][248] Shortly after, an alleged coup plot codenamed Sledgehammer became public and resulted in the imprisonment of 300 military officers including brahim Frtna, etin Doan and Engin Alan. Several opposition politicians, journalists and military officers also went on trial for allegedly being part of an ultra-nationalist organisation called Ergenekon.
Both cases were marred by irregularities and were condemned as a joint attempt by Erdoan and Glen to curb opposition to the AKP.[249] The original Sledgehammer document containing the coup plans, allegedly written in 2003, was found to have been written using Microsoft Word 2007.[250] Despite both domestic and international calls for these irregularities to be addressed in order to guarantee a fair trial, Erdoan instead praised his government for bringing the coup plots to light.[251] When Glen publicly withdrew support and openly attacked Erdoan in late 2013, several imprisoned military officers and journalists were released, with the government admitting that the judicial proceedings were unfair.[252]
When Glen withdrew support from the AKP government in late 2013, a government corruption scandal broke out, leading to the arrest of several family members of cabinet ministers. Erdoan accused Glen of co-ordinating a "parallel state" within the judiciary in an attempt to topple him from power. He then removed or reassigned several judicial officials in an attempt to remove Glen's supporters from office. Erdoan's 'purge' was widely questioned and criticised by the European Union.[253] In early 2014, a new law was passed by parliament giving the government greater control over the judiciary, which sparked public protest throughout the country. International organisations perceived the law to be a danger to the separation of powers.[254]
Several judicial officials removed from their posts said that they had been removed due to their secularist credentials. The political opposition accused Erdoan of not only attempting to remove Glen supporters, but supporters of Mustafa Kemal Atatrk's principles as well, in order to pave the way for increased politicisation of the judiciary. Several family members of Erdoan's ministers who had been arrested as a result of the 2013 corruption scandal were released, and a judicial order to question Erdoan's son Bilal Erdoan was annulled.[255] Controversy erupted when it emerged that many of the newly appointed judicial officials were actually AKP supporters.[256] slam iek, a judge who ejected the cases of five ministers' relatives accused of corruption, was accused of being an AKP supporter and an official investigation was launched into his political affiliations.[257] On 1 September 2014, the courts dissolved the cases of 96 suspects, which included Bilal Erdoan.[258]
Erdoan has been criticised for his politicisation of the media, especially after the 2013 protests. The opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) alleged that over 1,863 journalists lost their jobs due to their anti-government views in 12 years of AKP rule.[259] Opposition politicians have also alleged that intimidation in the media is due to the government's attempt to restructure the ownership of private media corporations. Journalists from the Cihan News Agency and the Glenist Zaman newspaper were repeatedly barred from attending government press conferences or asking questions.[260] Several opposition journalists such as Soner Yaln were controversially arrested as part of the Ergenekon trials and Sledgehammer coup investigation.[261] Veli Ababa, a CHP politician, has called the AKP the 'biggest media boss in Turkey.'[259]
In 2015, 74 US senators sent a letter to US Secretary of State, John Kerry, to state their concern over what they saw as deviations from the basic principles of democracy in Turkey and oppressions of Erdoan over media.[262]
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Recep Tayyip Erdoan - Wikipedia