History of Tayyab Erdogan: President of Turkey

History of Tayyab Erdogan: President of Turkey

Recep Tayyip Erdogan was born on February 26, 1954, in Istanbul, where he received his formal education. His early interest in economics and government began when he was a teenager. When he was younger, he also played soccer professionally. When Erdogan was 15, he joined the young members of his political party.

In 1994, he was elected Mayor of Istanbul thanks to his performance as party chairman there. He instituted a new organizational structure when serving as city chairman of the old Welfare Party (RP) in Istanbul and implemented it across the city government. His dedication to development projects and following through on necessary responsibilities led to his success as a city manager. By doing so, he introduced novel ideas and strategies into the government apparatus. 

Between 1994 and 1998, he worked on various complicated municipal infrastructure issues. After doing time for "inciting religious hatred" among the masses, the Turkish Superior Election Board (YSK) barred him from running for public office in 1998. Four months in jail, for sure. He returned to politics once his ban was lifted, and in 2003 he was elected Prime Minister of Turkey on the ticket of his party, the Justice and Development Party (AKP).

Tayyip Erdogan and the AK Party won parliament elections for the third time on June 12, 2011, and Erdogan then created a new government.

Tayyip Erdogan received 51% of the popular vote in the country's first publicly held presidential election on August 10, 2014. On August 28, he was sworn in as Turkey's 12th president. On June 24, 2018, Turkey had its next presidential and legislative elections, and 52% of the vote went to Erdogan for President. This time, though, he had more power because of Referendum that amended the Constitution, so he assembled his own Cabinet. By May 2023, he had garnered 52% of the vote and was reinstated to the presidency.

On 15–16 July 2016, a tiny group of soldiers attempted a coup d'état against Erdogan and the government, forcing him to deal with the fallout. In light of constitutional changes made during the April 16 2017, referendum, the President is once again the head of the AKP.

In April 2017, Erdoan's wish for expanded presidential powers was granted. During a referendum, voters approved of giving the President more power as the executive head of government and eliminating the position of prime minister. After the next scheduled election in November 2019, the alterations were to go into effect. 

However, early elections were ordered, and on June 24, 2018, Erdogan was elected President with a comfortable majority. On July 9, he became President with full powers after his inauguration.

 

The recession hit Turkey as a result of Erdogan's economic policies in the following months and U.S. tariffs on Turkish steel and aluminium exports. The lira lost around a quarter of its value by mid-August, and the economy grew slowly into 2019. 

The Erdoan-attributed rise in the cost of necessities was a major talking point during March's local elections. As a result of these elections, Erdoan's national agenda was severely hampered for the first time since the AKP came to power in 2004, and the party lost control of five key cities, including Ankara and Istanbul. Several AKP major hitters would eventually leave the party in protest over Erdoan's leadership in the coming months.

 

As the country confronted new challenges in 2020, he reinforced his hold on power. Medical professionals and other critics of the government's response to the COVID-19 outbreak were silenced. While the value of the lira fell further, Erdogan kept up his pressure on the central bank to change its monetary policies. In 2021, he began to exert influence over the management of a prestigious university, threatening academic freedom in the process. Meanwhile, Erdogan took increasingly aggressive stances on the international stage, encouraging and aiding a devastating conflict in the Nagorno-Karabakh region in the middle of 2020, provocatively visiting northern Cyprus in June 2021, and threatening to expel the ambassadors of nearly a dozen countries in October 2021 over a political prisoner. 

During the Russia–Ukraine War of 2022, he played a pivotal role as a mediator and used his influence inside NATO to block the membership applications of Finland and Sweden (see Turkey: 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine).

Frustration in an increasingly divided Turkey led to the formation of opposition party coalitions in 2022, intending to field a united candidate against Erdogan in the May 2023 presidential election. Kemal Klçdarolu, the head of the opposition in parliament since 2010, was the man they decided on. One of the opposition parties initially rejected the bureaucrat's candidacy because he lacked charisma and had never won a competitive election outside his parliament seat. In the meantime, the AKP's unclear law against the dissemination of disinformation passed in October 2022, raised the stakes by providing the government more leeway in silencing the press and public personalities. Tens of thousands died, and millions more were displaced when an earthquake struck Gaziantep in February 2023. 

The Turkish government was unprepared, contributing to the disaster becoming the bloodiest in modern history. In March, the opposition coalesced around Klçdarolu's candidacy, and in April, the largest Kurdish party in parliament, the Peoples' Democratic Party (Halklarn Demokratik Partisi; HDP), endorsed him. Nearly 90 per cent of eligible voters cast ballots, but Erdoan fell short of the majority needed to avoid a runoff election on May 28.