CHRONOLOGY

Turkey: the major dates in Recep Tayyip Erdogan's political career

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ruled Turkey with a steady hand for more than two decades. By suppressing secularism from Turkish society established by the country's first president, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Ankara's strongman is using religion as his spearhead. After years without any real opponent and uncompromising power, Mr. Erdogan is, for the first time, shaken up his throne. In the first round of the presidential election on 14 May 2023, he did not obtain an absolute majority, forcing him to face the opposition candidate, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, in the second round. Let's take a look back at the twelve dates that have marked Recep Tayyip Erdogan's power since he entered politics.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan addresses members of his ruling Justice and Development Party AKP in Ankara, Turkey, August 14, 2014. © AP Photo

Text by: Nenad Tomic

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1994: The debut at the Istanbul City Hall

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is standing in the municipal elections on the list of the Islamist Prosperity Party (Refah Partisi). Thanks to his anti-corruption program and his commitment to the development of Istanbul's infrastructure, he was elected mayor of the city. Let us remember that Turkey is still a secular state and that it is the army that ensures the regularity of institutions. However, Mr. Erdogan, who puts Islam at the forefront of his speech, is directly confronted with the Turkish Constitution. Four years after his arrival at the head of the city of Istanbul, in 1998, he recites a religious poem in public, which is strictly forbidden, according to the law. He was sentenced to prison for incitement to hatred and five years of ineligibility.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Mayor of Istanbul, greets his supporters in Istanbul, September 24, 1998. © AP Photo / Murad Sezer

2001: Economic liberalism and moderate political Islam

The former mayor of Istanbul does not give up his political dream after his conviction. He distanced himself from the Turkish Islamist movement and embarked on the path of economic liberalism and moderate political Islam. He is one of the main founders of the Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi – AKP), committed to the values of democracy.

2002: victory in the general elections

Recep Tayyip Erdogan's party, after a gigantic electoral campaign, won the legislative elections with an overwhelming majority. Pending the end of his period of ineligibility, Mr. Erdogan leaves the place of Prime Minister to his right-hand man, Abdullah Gül.

2003: in the shoes of Prime Minister

Recep Tayyip Erdogan is using all his political weight to obtain the annulment of his ineligibility sentence. On 14th March he was appointed the new Prime Minister and surrounded himself with a government which had to work on economic issues to revive the country and, at the same time, to create the necessary conditions for the application for membership of the European Union.

2007: Full powers and the death of secularism

In April, President Ahmet Necdet Sezer's mandate came to an end. Recep Tayyip Erdogan wants Parliament to appoint a strong man of his party (AKP), in the person of former Prime Minister Abdullah Gül. The army immediately expresses its concern, because the president is, according to the constitution, the guarantor of secularism in the country while Mr. Gül is the embodiment of the Islamic-conservative party. Giant demonstrations in all major cities of Turkey are organized. But after the parliamentary elections in August, Erdogan's AKP again won an absolute majority and the new parliament appointed Abdallah Gül president. He is the first president of modern Turkey from an Islamic party. The most senior military officials are accused of attempted coups and gradually eliminated from the political scene. Opposition becomes almost non-existent, as many parties are banned. Education is based on the religious system while prayers or gender inequality are encouraged.

2013: Demonstrations against the government

In May, a small demonstration spawned a movement all over Turkey. That of the environmental movement – in protest against the destruction of a small park in downtown Istanbul – is repressed by force. Subsequently, a major protest movement against the authoritarian power of Recep Tayyip Erdogan organized and spread for more than a month throughout the country. It is in this context that a corruption scandal erupts. Implicated, several ministers as well as Mr. Erdogan's son resigned.

2014: in the role of the president

Despite the protests, Recep Tayyip Erdogan was elected president in the first round of voting on 10 August. He won 52% of the vote in this first presidential election by direct universal suffrage. As the powers of the Turkish president are less important than those of the prime minister, Mr. Erdogan wants to change the constitution.

2015: without an absolute majority

In June, in parliamentary elections, for the first time since its creation, Erdogan's AK Party lost an absolute majority in parliament. Recep Tayyip Erdogan must postpone his draft amendment to the Constitution. In the elections that the AKP is holding again in November, the party finally wins an absolute majority. In July, the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) and the Turkish army broke the ceasefire decreed in 2013. Fighting with the Kurdish separatist movement, which has claimed more than 40,000 lives since 1984, is resuming as major cities are the target of several terrorist attacks claimed by the PKK or the Islamic State group.

2016: a failed coup d'état

In March, Recep Tayyip Erdogan and the European Union reached an agreement in the midst of the refugee crisis from Syria. This agreement reduces the number of migrants in Europe.

On the night of 15 to 16 July, a faction of the army attempted a coup d'état. Istanbul airport and bridges over the Bosphorus are blocked by tanks and the putschists take over state television. In the clashes, more than 250 people lost their lives. The government accuses the preacher Fethullah Gulen, who lives in exile in the United States, of being behind the coup. Erdogan declares a state of emergency and takes advantage of the crisis to bring the country under control. The end of 2016 was marked by purges in many state institutions (army, judiciary, security services, education, media, among others).

Police officers stand on one of the army's armored vehicles after troops involved in the coup surrendered to the Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, July 16, 2016. REUTERS/Murad Sezer

2017: Strengthened powers

Recep Tayyip Erdogan holds a referendum on constitutional reform. The bill was adopted by a narrow majority, with 51% of the votes in favour. Thus, Erdogan grants himself the functions of president, the head of the armed forces and the government, because the office of prime minister is abolished.

2018: re-election

The first round of the presidential election is held in June. Recep Tayyip Erdogan is also counting on the votes of the Nationalist Action Party (MHP), a far-right party with which he has formed a coalition. Thanks to the 52.6% of the votes obtained in the first round, he was elected and thus eliminated his main opponent, Muharrem Ince. The entire international community as well as the opposition denounced unequal conditions during the electoral campaign: media favorable to Mr. Erdogan, mobilization of religion for political purposes... At the same time, the Turkish economy is beginning to weaken and the inflation rate is breaking records.

2023: uncertainty

Despite the economic crisis, Recep Tayyip Erdogan is rising in the polls ahead of the presidential election on May 14.

However, on 6 February, a powerful earthquake struck Turkey and especially the regions where the Turkish president had broad support. For public opinion, the large number of victims of the earthquake (more than 50,000) is the consequence of poor State policy in terms of prevention and housing construction regulations that are not clear enough and are easily circumvented by corruption. Recep Tayyip Erdogan's popularity is collapsing, while the main opposition candidate, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu, is taking advantage of this protest momentum. For the first time, in the first round of the presidential election, Mr. Erdogan did not win an absolute majority. He was forced into the second round, the outcome of which was uncertain.

Our selection on the subject:

Further reading:

• Turkey: Erdogan losing ground in his electoral strongholds
• Turkey: Erdogan leads the presidential election but forced to a second round
• Presidential election in Turkey: a few days before the second round, Kiliçdaroglu mobilizes at all costs

Listen:

• Presidential election in Turkey: Kiliçdaroglu's nationalist turn before the second round
• Under Erdogan, Turkey's dramatic push into Africa

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, candidate for re-election after twenty years in power, seems threatened for the first time by a rival, Kemal Kiliçdaroglu. May 13, 2023. © AP Photo / Emrah Gurel

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