Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

ecep Tayyip Erdoğan (Turkish pronunciation: [ɾeˈd͡ʒep tɑjˈjip ˈæɾdo(ɰ)ɑn] ( listen); born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as the current President of Turkey, holding the position since 2014. He previously served as Prime Minister from 2003 to 2014 and as Mayor of Istanbul from 1994 to 1998. He founded the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2001, leading it to general election victories in 2002, 2007 and 2011 before standing down upon his election as President in 2014. Coming from an Islamist political background and as a self-described conservative democrat, he has promoted socially conservative and liberal economic policies in his administration.^{[5][unreliable source?]}

Erdoğan played football for Kasımpaşa before being elected in 1994 as the Mayor of Istanbul from the Islamist Welfare Party. He was stripped of his position, banned from political office, and imprisoned for four months, for reciting a poem that promoted a religious point of view of government during a speech in 1998.^[6] Erdoğan abandoned openly Islamist politics and established the moderate conservative AKP in 2001. Following the AKP's landslide victory in 2002, the party's co-founder Abdullah Gül became Prime Minister, until his government annulled Erdoğan's ban from political office. Erdoğan became Prime Minister in March 2003 after winning a by-election in Siirt.^[7]

Erdoğan's government oversaw negotiations for Turkey's membership in the European Union, an economic recovery following a financial crash in 2001, changes to the constitution via referenda in 2007 and 2010, a Neo-Ottoman foreign policy, and investments in infrastructure including roads, airports, and a high-speed train network.^[8][9]With the help of the Cemaat Movement led by preacher Fethullah Gülen, Erdoğan was able to curb the power of the military through the 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'état was unsuccessfully attempted against Erdoğan and Turkish state institutions. This was followed by purges and an ongoing state of emergency.

Nationwide protests against the perceived authoritarianism of Erdoğan's government began in May 2013; he directed a police crackdown that resulted in 22 deaths and strong international criticism. This stalled negotiations related to EU membership. Following a split with Gülen, Erdoğan promulgated sweeping judicial reforms he insisted were needed to purge Gülen's sympathisers, but which were criticised for threatening judicial independence. A US$100 billion corruption scandal in 2013 led to the arrests of Erdoğan's close allies, and incriminated Erdoğan.^[10][11][12] His government has since come under fire for alleged human rights violations and crackdown on press and social media, having blocked access to Wikipedia, Twitter, Facebook,./ and YouTube on numerous occasions.^[13] Erdoğan's government lifted the bans when directed by court orders,^[14][15][16] but later reimposed them.^[17][18] Journalists have criticised his authoritarian tendencies; more journalists have been incarcerated in Turkey under Erdoğan than in any other country.^[19] Political commentators have stated that Erdoğan's unceasing efforts at broadening his executive powers, while also minimizing his executive accountability, amount to the "fall of Turkish democracy," and the "birth of a dictator". Erdoğan supporters contend that Turkey remains a majoritarian democracy, claiming that the government's disputed April 2017 elections were legitimate