Recep Tayyip Erdogan has spent 20 years in energy, serving as Turkey’s prime minister from 2003 to 2014, when he was elected president.
He now faces the large problem of rebuilding swathes of the nation which have crumbled to rubble in essentially the most devastating earthquake since 1999.
He can also be searching for re-election in May.
Who is Erdogan, how has Turkey modified beneath his rule and what do his critics and supporters say about him?
The early years
Born in February 1954, Erdogan grew up on Turkey’s Black Sea coast till he was 13, when his household moved to Istanbul.
He went to an Islamic faculty, and biographers say he offered bread rolls and lemonade to assist pay for his education.
He later performed semi-professional soccer and earned a level in administration from Istanbul’s Marmara University.
Erdogan was mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998, shedding his place when he was jailed for studying a controversial poem at a rally.
From prime minister to president
Erdogan grew to become prime minister in 2003, two years after founding the Justice and Development Party (AKP).
He served three phrases, presiding first over a interval of financial progress fuelled by international commerce and funding – earlier than the tide began to show towards him.
In 2013, a wave of civil unrest broke out, centred on Istanbul’s Gezi Park. What began as demonstrations over plans to construct a shopping center over the park erupted into protests over a authorities seen to be turning into more and more authoritarian.
In 2014, Erdogan grew to become Turkey’s first straight elected president. Before this level, it had been a principally ceremonial put up; Erdogan sought to vary that.
His imaginative and prescient of a brand new presidential system, which abolished the workplace of the prime minister and concentrated most powers within the arms of the president, was accepted by a slim victory in a 2017 referendum and put in following his profitable 2018 presidential election.
An tried coup
A bunch inside Turkey’s navy tried to overthrow the federal government in 2016, conducting coordinated operations throughout a number of cities and focusing on the president the place he was holidaying in Marmaris.
Erdogan was flown to security in a helicopter however about 250 individuals have been killed and greater than 2,000 injured after civilians stood as much as the coup plotters.
In the crackdown following the coup about 150,000 civil servants have been sacked and greater than 50,000 individuals have been detained, together with journalists, lecturers, cops, troopers and attorneys.
Erdogan and the economic system
Inflation in Turkey hit a 24-year excessive of 85% final October, with economists saying rate of interest cuts sought by Erdogan have been accountable.
Inflation dipped to simply beneath 58% in January and is anticipated to take a seat round 40% when the nation heads to the polls in May.
Turkey has been mired in financial disaster since 2018, with the lira plunging in worth, slumping to at least one tenth of its worth towards the greenback during the last decade.
While excessive rates of interest are usually seen as a manner of bringing excessive inflation beneath management, Erdogan contends the alternative and vowed to maintain slicing rates of interest at the same time as inflation hit its peak.
In January, Erdogan introduced a raft of public spending, together with doubling the minimal wage, reducing the retirement age and growing pensions.
But his finances may very well be stretched now the federal government additionally faces the price of an enormous rebuild after the earthquakes.
Responding to the earthquakes
Erdogan has confronted criticism from households left annoyed by a gradual response from rescue groups.
Many Turks have complained of a scarcity of kit, experience and assist to assist those that are trapped.
During a go to to Hatay province, the place greater than 3,300 individuals have died and whole neighbourhoods have been destroyed, Erdogan stated: “It is not possible to be prepared for such a disaster. We will not leave any of our citizens uncared for.”
Speaking to reporters, he criticised these spreading “lies and slander” about his authorities’s actions – and stated it was a time for unity and solidarity.
“I cannot stomach people conducting negative campaigns for political interest,” he added.
However, he admitted there have been some “shortcomings” within the preliminary response.
Erdogan and the world
Erdogan has lengthy held shut ties with Vladimir Putin and continues to name Russia’s president his “dear friend”.
Turkey’s president has supplied to assist mediate an finish to the battle in Ukraine and helped dealer the deal for a protected export channel for grain within the Black Sea.
In latest months he has repeatedly threatened a floor invasion towards Kurdish teams in northern Syria, sparking fears for management of prisons housing 1000’s of Islamic State fighters.
On the world stage, Erdogan has additionally been outspoken in relation to Sweden and Finland becoming a member of NATO.
As a NATO member, Turkey has the precise to veto any new inductees, and Erdogan has expressed issues in regards to the Kurdish inhabitants in Sweden.
What Erdogan’s critics say
Critics say Erdogan has turned Turkey into an autocracy – in different phrases, a one-man present – muzzled dissent and eroded individuals’s rights.
Reporters Without Borders lists Turkey at 149 out of 180 international locations on its press freedom index, noting that 90% of its nationwide media is now beneath authorities management.
Erdogan’s rolling again of the ban on girls carrying headscarves was seen as one instance of him reversing the secularity enshrined within the founding of the Turkish Republic a century in the past. However, it was welcomed by Muslims who had felt excluded by the previous guidelines.
Erdogan was additionally criticised for pulling out of a global accord designed to guard girls from home violence in 2021. Hundreds gathered to protest the transfer, citing hovering charges of femicide in Turkey.
What Erdogan and his supporters say
Officials deny individuals’s rights have been curtailed, arguing Erdogan’s protected residents within the face of distinctive safety threats together with the 2016 coup try.
Ozer Sencar, chairman of pollster MetroPoll, stated that amplifying international coverage and safety points forward of elections permits Erdogan to consolidate his voter base – a reference to Erdogan’s remarks about Sweden and NATO.
He “creates a perception of a ‘strong leader’ inside Turkey,” he stated. “If you can come up with a security problem, then people rally behind the strong leader.”
Meanwhile, the recognition of Erdogan and his celebration has hit a two-year excessive following an enormous enhance in spending, in response to Middle East Eye.
A difficult election
The essential problem to Erdogan comes from an alliance of centre-left and right-wing events, often called the Table of Six.
However, the events are but to appoint an opposition candidate.
Erdogan’s AK Party, now the largest, is more likely to stay a robust pressure in parliament after the elections, however opinion polls present Erdogan trailing some potential presidential challengers together with CHP chief Kemal Kilicdaroglu and the favored mayors of Istanbul and Ankara.
Source: information.sky.com”