Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

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> *"What kind of democracy? Is democracy a goal? Or just a toll? Democracy will never be the goal for us!"*
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**Recep Tayyip Erdoğan** (February 26, 1954 - ) is a Turkish politician who has been the president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as the prime minister of Turkey from 2003 to 2014 and as the mayor of İstanbul from 1994 to 1998. He is one of the founding members of Justice and Development Party. He became the first president to be elected directly by popular vote, with the election held on 10 August 2014, following the constitutional amendment referendum that approved the popular election of the president. He was elected president for the second time in the election held on June 24, 2018. He was elected president for the third time in the election held on May 28, 2023.

## Biography

Erdoğan was born on 26 February 1954 to Ahmet and Tenzile Erdoğan in the Kasımpaşa, a poor neighborhood of İstanbul, to which his family had moved from Rize in the 1930s. He has 3 brothers Mehmet, Hasan and Mustafa Erdoğan and 1 sister Vesile İlgen.

During his childhood gained Islamic ideas from his family Also in an interview with him, Erdoğan stated that he sold bagels and water in his childhood,  and in the documentary about him, Usta'nın Hikayesi (Tale of the Master), he stated that he collected tea and hazelnuts in Rize, where he went during the summer months when he was a child.

He graduated from Piyalepaşa Primary School in Kasımpaşa, where he received his primary education, in 1965, and from İstanbul İmam Hatip High School , where he received his high school education and studied as a boarding student, in 1973. In 2017, the high school he attended was named after him. While he was studying at İstanbul İmam Hatip High School, he played football as an amateur in Camialtıspor. He wanted to become a football player in his teenage years but his father did not allow it because he did not see football as Islamic and with that he headed to politics.

He married Emine Gülbaran, whom he met at a conference he gave on July 4, 1978. Emine Erdoğan and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have two sons named Ahmet Burak and Necmettin Bilal and two daughters named Esra and Sümeyye. His sons-in-law are Berat Albayrak, who is married to Esra Erdoğan, and Selçuk Bayraktar, who is married to Sümeyye Erdoğan.

## Early political career

He joined the National Turkish Student Union during his high school years. In 1975, he was elected as the chairman of the Beyoğlu youth branch of the National Salvation Party (MSP), and in 1976 he was elected as the chairman of the MSP Istanbul provincial youth branch. He continued in this position until the closure of MSP after the September 12 Coup.

He returned to politics with the Welfare Party , founded on June 19, 1983, and became the Beyoğlu district chairman in 1984. At the general congress held the following year, he was elected as a member of the central decision-making and executive committee, and in the same year, he was appointed as the İstanbul provincial chairman of the party.  ​​Although he entered the parliamentary by-elections on 28 September 1986 as the İstanbul candidate of the Welfare Party, he was not elected. He became a candidate for mayor of Beyoğlu in the local elections on 26 March 1989 and not elected again. Erdoğan, who objected to the election results by claiming that there was an irregularity in the result assembly minutes, was taken to court by Özcan on the grounds that he insulted the District Election Board Chairman, 2nd Criminal Court of First Instance Judge Nazmi Özcan, and was tried with a request for a prison sentence of 18 months to 2 years. An arrest warrant in absentia was issued for Erdoğan, who did not attend the hearings of the case at the Beyoğlu 1st Criminal Court of First Instance. About a month later, on April 27, he was arrested and after staying in Bayrampaşa Prison for about a week , he was released on bail of 500 thousand liras. Although the court sentenced him to six months in prison and a fine of 20 thousand liras for "insulting the judge", the prison sentence was suspended and converted into a fine of 920 thousand liras in accordance with Article 72 of the Turkish Penal Code.

He entered the general elections on October 20, 1991 as the Welfare Party's candidate from the 1st place in Istanbul 6th region. The Welfare Party, which entered the elections in alliance with the Nationalist Labor Party and the Reformist Democracy Party, received 16.73% of the votes in Istanbul. Erdoğan, who entered the Grand National Assembly of Turkey as a member of the 19th term , was elected a member of parliament a few days after the results were announced.

### İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality (1994-98)

On January 15, 1994, it was announced by Welfare Party chairman Necmettin Erbakan that Erdoğan would be the candidate for İstanbul metropolitan mayor.  In the elections, Erdoğan was elected Mayor of İstanbul Metropolitan Municipality. He made an investment of 4 billion dollars during his term as mayor. More than 50 bridges, passages and ring roads were built to the city's traffic and transportation dilemma.

A lawsuit was filed at the İstanbul State Security Court out of 18 files regarding the presidency. Some of these are corruption cases related to the AKBİL Scandal, İSFALT, İSTAÇ and İDO These cases were frozen during his immunity due to his immunity when he became a member of parliament.

## Political ban and prison period

In his speech to the crowd during an meeting held in Siirt on December 6, 1997, he read a poem. Diyarbakır State Security Court Chief Public Prosecutor's Office completed the indictment against Erdoğan on February 12, 1998, on the charge of "openly inciting the public to hatred and hostility, taking into account religious and racial differences" according to Article 312/2 of the Turkish Penal Code .  The trial of Erdoğan, who was sued for one to three years in prison, started on 31 March 1998. The case, which was concluded on 21 April 1998, resulted in Erdoğan committing the crime mentioned in the indictment, and Erdoğan was sentenced to one year in prison and a heavy fine of 860 thousand TL. Later, considering his behavior and attitude at the hearing, his sentence was commuted to 10 months' imprisonment and a fine of 176 million 666 thousand 666 liras. On 24 July 1999, he completed his sentence and was released from prison after 4 months and 10 days but got a political ban.

## Foundation of Justice and Development Party

After the Virtue Party was permanently closed by the Constitutional Court, the MPs who remained independent continued their efforts to establish a new party from two wings called "traditionalists" and "innovators". While the wing called "National Vision" founded the Felicitu Party on July 20, 2001, under the chairmanship of Recai Kutan , the "change" wing founded the Justice and Development Party on August 14, 2001, under the leadership of Tayyip Erdoğan. , was elected as the party chairman. Erdoğan received a great reaction from conservatives with his statement "We changed our shirts". The established Justice and Development Party became the first party with 34.28% , receiving 10,770,704 votes out of 32,652,702 people who voted among 41,291,568 registered voters in the 3 November 2002 elections. Erdoğan, who was still banned from politics, could not enter the elections. The political ban was lifted with the implementation of the law change request submitted to the Grand National Assembly of Turkey to lift the political ban. He entered the parliament as a member of parliament from Siirt in the by-elections held on March 9, 2003 . He took office as prime minister on March 14, 2003, after Prime Minister Abdullah Gül submitted his resignation.

## Controversies

Erdoğan's bodyguards have been repeatedly accused of torture and coercion. In 2009 Erdoğan's bodyguards assaulted a 13 years old boy who was protesting, the boy also claimed that Erdoğan squeezed his nape. In 2019 lawyer Sertuğ Sürenoğlu got tortured by Erdoğan's bodyguards. In the parliamentary question submitted by CHP Deputy Mahmut Tanal to the Minister of Internal Affairs Süleyman Soylu, requesting his response, it was revealed that the file regarding the guards who used violence against Sürenoğlu was closed. Answering the motion, Soylu noted that the file of the President's bodyguards who were involved in the coup against Sürenoğlu was removed from the process.

With the help of Fethullah Gülen and Cemaat Movement, Erdoğan was able to curb the political power of the military through the Sledgehammer and Ergenekon court cases.

In 2013 Turkey protests with the usage of police brutality 22 died and more than 8.000 people got wounded. With the AKP's heavy-handed response receiving international condemnation and stalling the party's once championed EU accession negotiations. With the protests and US $100 billion government corruption scandal in 2013 led to the arrests of Erdoğan's close allies ,which Erdoğan himself incriminated after a recording was released on social media with his son Bilal Erdoğan, government has brought about tighter regulations on internet use and blocked access to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube on numerous occasions.

On 31 May 2011 retired teacher Metin Lokumcu died in the hospital where he was taken after falling ill with pressurized water and pepper gas sprayed by the police during the protests that took place before Recep Tayyip Erdoğan 's rally in Hopa district of Artvin for the 2011 Turkish general elections.

During the Erdoğan's and AKP's rule many opposition journalists got detained. According to a report made public by the Council of Europe, "Turkey is the country with the highest number of journalists in prison in the world". One of the most known case is when Erdoğan imprisoned a journalist that comparrd him to Gollum ftom The Lord of the Rings series. During his interview with BBC News he replied with "*Those who are currently inside do not have the title of being a journalist. They either acted together with the terrorist organization, entered the prison because of possession of weapons, or broke into ATMs in many places and robbed these places. But they do not have a yellow press card in their pockets, they have a journalist card. However, they themselves are journalists. They claimed that it was.*"

Erdoğan has also perpetrated war crimes as his government has allegedly provided financial support and weapons to The Islamic State as well as militant groups in Syria.

In May 2023 Erdoğan showed a deep fake video that shows PKK leader Murat Karayılan supporting opposition leader Kemal Kılıçdaroğlu.

## Quotes

>     *" 'Sovereignty unconditionally belongs to the Nation' listen it's a lie, it's a big lie. Sovereignty only belongs to Allah."* -~Erdoğan to Mustafa Kemal Atatürk's famous words.
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> *"Every instigator or madman, who will dare to raise his hand against the government, let him be sure that the government will chop it off."*
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> "*Shut up."*
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> "*Twitter, mwitter we are going to get rid all of them, that's right all of them."*
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> "*Only I can rule Turkey."*
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> *"First of all I am a Muslim."*
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> "*Mosques are our barracks, domes our helmets, minarets our bayonets, believers our soldiers. This holy army guards my religion*." ~Erdoğan's poem that caused him to get 4 months in prison and a political ban.
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> "*The law made by two drunkards is valid, but why should you reject a law ordered by religion ?*"
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> "*Mr. Öcalan is now answering for the heads he took, not for his thoughts. I, on the other hand, spent 4 months in prison because of my thoughts, the difference between us is huge.*"
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## Gallery

Erdoğan in his teenage years.Erdoğan with Fethullah Gülen.Erdoğan with Fethullah Gülen, former Prime Minister Tansu Çiller and Abdullah Gül.