Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

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Tayyip Erdoğan
Prime Minister of Turkey
Incumbent
Assumed office  14 March 2003
President	Ahmet Necdet Sezer Abdullah Gül
Deputy	Abdullah Gül Cemil Çiçek Hayati Yazıcı Nazım Ekren
Preceded by	Abdullah Gül
Mayor of Istanbul
In office 27 March 1994 – 06 November 1998
Preceded by	Nurettin Sözen
Succeeded by	Ali Müfit Gürtuna
Born	26 February 1954 (1954-02-26) (age 54) Istanbul, Turkey
Political party	AKP
Spouse	Emine Erdoğan

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan [ˈrɛdʒɛp ˈtɑːjip ˈɛrdɔːɑn] (born February 26, 1954) has served as the Prime Minister of Turkey since March 14, 2003. He is the leader of the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP, or Justice and Development Party). He married Emine Erdoğan - Gülbaran (b. 1955 in Siirt) on 4 July 1978 and they have two sons (Ahmet Burak, Necmeddin Bilâl) and two daughters (Esra, Sümeyye).

[edit] Early life

Erdoğan was born in Beyoglu, Istanbul. His family was descended from Georgian immigrants who settled from Batum to Rize. (He announced his origins during his visit to Georgia in 2004.^[1]) Erdoğan spent his early childhood in Rize where his family had settled, before returning to Istanbul at the age of 13. He spent most of his childhood selling simit on the streets of Istanbul before he received some education at a religious İmam Hatip school and at Marmara University's Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences (İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi). Erdoğan played semi-professional football in a local neighbourhood club for 16 years^{[citation needed]}. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from University of Sarajevo on March 25, 2008 [2].

[edit] Joining politics

During late 1970s, Erdoğan worked for Istanbul's municipal transport company, the IETT. He became active in politics with the National Salvation Party (Milli Selâmet Partisi), which was led by Necmettin Erbakan.

Turkey witnessed political tensions during the late 1970s, which were particularly marked by right-wing and left-wing armed conflicts that led to the 1980 Turkish coup d'état. The coup d'état disbanded political parties, including the National Salvation Party. Necmettin Erbakan was charged and brought into military courts. After the coup d'état, Erdoğan left the IETT and worked in the private sector. He performed his mandatory military service in 1982 as a commissioned officer.

The political party system was restored in 1983. Necmettin Erbakan was banned from politics by the coup authors. The former members of National Salvation Party founded the Welfare Party (Refah Partisi). Erdoğan re-entered politics through this new party.

He became the party chairman in Istanbul Province in the 1985 local elections and stood for Mayor of Beyoğlu district. He did not win the local elections. The party nominated Erdoğan as a candidate for Parliament from the central Istanbul area several times during the late 1980s. Erdoğan did not win enough votes until 1991. In 1991, the party passed the 10% threshold necessary to gain seats in the parliament for the first time.

Erdoğan was elected as a Member of Parliament from Istanbul Province; however, this was withdrawn by the High Electoral Committee due to the then-existing voting system.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Mayor of Istanbul 1994

In the 27 March 1994 local elections, Erdoğan was hand-picked by Erbakan for his oratory skills and was selected to stand for mayor.^[2] The Welfare Party became the largest party in Turkey for the first time, and Erdoğan became Mayor of Greater Istanbul as well as President of the Greater Istanbul Metropolitan Council.

As Mayor of Istanbul, he made a name for himself as a populistic, effective administrator. As the mayor of the country's most populous city, he become one of Turkey's most popular politicians. Like his predecessors, he worked on building up Istanbul's infrastructure and transportation grid. He is also cited for beautifying the city.

During this period Turkish Islamist politics entered a period of chaos. Erdoğan added somewhat to the divide when, in 1995, he commented that New Year celebrations were a habit adopted by secularists, and not a legitimate cause for celebration in his opinion.^[3] Erdoğan also stated that shaking hands with people of the opposite sex was a social habit.^[3]

[edit] 1998 imprisonment

Erdoğan's Islamist sympathies earned him a conviction in 1998^[4]. As Mayor of Istanbul, Erdoğan was the most prominent of 200 mayors and other local officials in Turkey; because he was a national figure and hero to millions of Islamic-oriented voters, his case drew considerable attention.^[5]

In 1997, the Welfare Party was declared unconstitutional and was shut down on the grounds of threatening the secular nature of the state. In 1998, Erdoğan become a constant speaker at the demonstrations held by his colleagues from the banned Welfare Party. Secularism in Turkey has been taken very seriously since the establishment of the state with Kemalist ideology as its guiding principle. In line with the Atatürk's Reforms, the Constitution of Turkey states that laïcité, social equality, and equality before law are the main and unchangeable characteristics of Turkey. Kemalist ideology also adopted the position of "public reason", which claimed that activities falling outside of the private sphere should be secular and no religious group should be given permission to dominate over other belief systems. Any activity or promotion of domination over other belief systems are felt to fall under the somewhat controversial concept of "incitement to religious hatred", which has been part of the Turkish constitution since its establishment. The "religious hatred" concept has been used against the movements that promoted the reestablishment of the abolished Ottoman Caliphate and Islamic fundamentalist positions. There is no question that Erdoğan is pro-Islamic (he calls himself a religious conservative) but the extent of his position towards the fundamentally secular nature of the state was called into question on 12 December 1997 at a public meeting in Siirt in Eastern Anatolia. In his speech, Erdoğan identified Turkish society as having "two fundamentally different camps" – those who blindly follow the Atatürk's Reforms [seculars] and the Muslims who unite Islam with Sharia.^[6] He publicly read a well-known Islamic poem including modified lines:^[4]

Erdoğan was tried and convicted of inciting "religious hatred" in 1998. He was sentenced to ten months' imprisonment of which he served four between March and July 1999.

[edit] Prime Minister of Turkey, 2002-Current

On 17 October 2006, Prime Minister Erdoğan suffered a mild shock in public due to hypoglycemia, possibly influenced by the fatigue caused by Ramadan fasting^{[citation needed]}. He was hospitalized but the doctors determined that he only needed a few days of rest and viewed his state of health as not being of serious concern. His transportation to the hospital became a phenomenon as well when the driver of his armoured vehicle accidentally closed the door to the vehicle leaving the keys inside. The security system of the vehicle locked all the doors with Erdoğan still inside, unconscious. A hammer was brought in from a nearby construction yard to break the bulletproof windows of the vehicle and rescue the Prime Minister.

[edit] Domestic affairs

[edit] Justice

In November 2005, a case was brought before the European Court of Human Rights by a female student who insisted on wearing a prohibited hijab (headcovering) to class. Turkish law prohibits the wearing of religious headcovering and theo-politically symbolic garments for both genders in government buildings, schools, and universities;^[9] a law upheld by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights as "legitimate" on November 10, 2005 in Leyla Şahin v. Turkey.^[10] Erdoğan was prepared to dispense with the judiciary altogether by angrily declaring, "The court has no right to speak on this issue. That right belongs to the ulema (clerics)", when this appeal was rejected.

On March 2006, the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) for the first time in Turkey's history held a press conference and publicly protest the obstruction of the appointment of judges to the high courts for over 10 months. They claimed Erdoğan wanted to fill the vacant posts with its own Islamic-minded appointees which through this policy Erdoğan was accused of creating a rift with the Turkey's highest court of appeals (the Yargitay) and high administrative court (the Danıştay). Erdoğan claimed that constitution gave the power of assigning members to his elected party. Erdoğan hold the position that there is nothing wrong with their policy-making regarding the positions in the judiciary, as himself a graduate of the İmam Hatip school said: "sees no wrong in the appointment of tens of thousands of Koranic school graduates who already became judges as higher court judges".

On May 2007, the head of the top court in Turkey has asked prosecutors to consider whether Erdoğan should be charged over critical comments regarding the 2007 Presidential elections. Erdoğan said the ruling was "a disgrace to the justice system", and criticized the Constitutional Court which had invalidated a presidential vote because a boycott of other parties meant there was no quorum. Prosecutors have already investigated his earlier comments, including saying it had fired a "bullet at democracy". Tülay Tuğcu, head of the Constitutional Court, condemned Erdoğan for "threats, insults and hostility" towards the justice system.^[11]

[edit] Economy

Erdoğan's success story is keeping the economy on the track designated by World Bank economist Kemal Derviş. Erdoğan supported Ali Babacan in enforcing Derviş's macro-economic policies. Erdoğan did not cut the relations with international monetary control systems in favour of a more protectionist economy. The AK Party did quite well in almost all areas of the economy apart from the budget deficit. Erdoğan said that during this premiership the economy's average growth rate was 7.3%, that per capita annual income had almost doubled, and that all these were related to his economic reforms and the pursuit of European Union membership.^[12] On the other hand, because of the control of foreign investors on the Turkish stock market, some views express concerns about the future stability of the economy.^[13]

[edit] Education and health

Ahmet Necdet Sezer claimed at a speech in the War Academy that "religious fundamentalism has reached dramatic proportions" and that Islamic fundamentalism "is trying to infiltrate politics, education and the state, it is systematically eroding values". Erdoğan responded to this by arguing, "Religious people also have a right to politics. [...] If you want to keep the faithful out of politics, the people will never forgive you".^[14]

Concerning birth control, Erdoğan had said that he personally did not practice it and was against it because the future required a dynamic young population.^[3]

Erdoğan does not drink alcohol and as the mayor of Istanbul, he had restricted use of alcohol in public restaurants.^[3] During his premiership he did not bring forward a nationwide law to restrict the use of alcohol. He did however, progressively increase the taxes imposed on tobacco and alcohol during his tenure out of line with other consumer products, under the name "special consumption tax" (özel tüketim vergisi). This move led to reduced consumption of alcohol and tobacco products in Turkey.^[15]

In relation to social policies, Erdoğan frequently paid lip service to the argument that Turkish Social Security is strong but that he wants the same social service treatment that he once had the chance to observe in Germany. On April 2006, Erdoğan unveiled a social security reform package demanded by the International Monetary Fund under a loan deal. Erdoğan claimed that the move, which was passed with fierce opposition, was the one of the most radical reforms. Turkey’s three social security bodies were united under one roof, bringing equal health services and retirement benefits for members of all three bodies. Under the second bill, everyone below the age of 18 will be entitled to free health services, irrespective of whether they pay premiums to any social security organization or not. The bill also envisages a gradual increase in the retirement age. Starting from 2036, the retirement age will eventually increase to 65 as of 2048 for both women and men.^[16]

Turkey's president approved on February 22, 2008 a pair of constitutional amendments that would allow female students to wear Islamic head scarves at universities.^[17]

[edit] Terrorism and security

Erdoğan gave a speech in New York on 19 December 2006 in which he talked mainly about the good relations between citizens of Turkey who come from different backgrounds by giving an example from his own life. Erdoğan said that he doesn't have any problems with his wife, Emine Erdoğan née Gülbaran (b. 1955 in Siirt), who is of Arab ancestry and originally of a different denomination (Shāfi‘ī/Ash'ari).

Erdoğan was investigated by Turkish prosecutors for allegedly using the word 'Honourable' (Sayın) when referring to the convicted former PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in a 2000 interview with SBS Radio.^[18] However, in April 2007, the prosecutors decided not to open a case against him, saying they found "no element of criminal offence" in the interview.^[19] The PKK is a militant group listed as a terrorist organization internationally by a number of states and organizations, including the U.S., NATO, and the EU.^[20]

Erdoğan has appointed liberal Muslim theologians to the Department of Religious Affairs.^[21] He has promised to crush the country's Islamic militants. Radical Muslim groups are considered a threat to the secular political establishment. Erdoğan had passed several reforms such as: giving the EU Court of Human Rights supremacy over Turkish courts, diminishing the powers of the 1991 Anti-Terror Law which had constrained Turkey’s democratization, and passing a partial amnesty to reduce penalties faced by many members of the Kurdish terrorist organization PKK who had surrendered to the government.^[3]

[edit] Foreign policies

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan meets American President George W. Bush at the Oval Office

[edit] EU

See also: Accession of Turkey to the European Union

Erdoğan made membership in the European Union his primary objective.

In May 2004, he became the first Turkish Prime Minister to visit Greece since 1988, and the first to visit the Turkish minority of Thrace since 1952. The visit was remarkably congenial on both sides, and Erdoğan scored an important victory when his Greek counterpart, Kostas Karamanlis, declared that Greece would support a Turkish bid for European Union membership, a major aim of Erdoğan's administration. On the 10 February 2008 Erdoğan sparked controversy in Germany with a speech in Cologne in which he addressed the large Turkish population in that country, calling assimilation a "crime against humanity". He told Turks living in Germany to keep an identity separate from that of the German people, while he emphasised the need to learn German as well as Turkish, calling for schools in Germany that would teach both languages. He has been criticised for this by a number of German politicians, one of whom has called for a re-evaluation of Turkey's EU prospects.

[edit] Cyprus

At the beginning of his term, Erdoğan backed down on Turkey's traditional national policy on Cyprus. However, according to an editorial in Hürriyet, "Erdoğan had not said a single word about his policy and only noted that they were in favor of finding a solution to the problem. He effectively issued a message to Denktaş, tacitly warning him that they would have already taught him his place if it were not for their respect for his age and position." ^[22] Erdoğan supported the Annan Plan for Cyprus.

Erdoğan's ideas regarding the Cyprus issues came closer to the traditional perspective after the failure of 2004 Cypriot reunification referendum. He become more susceptible to critics on sensitive security-related issues upon the fall of Cyprus plan. When Erdoğan met resistance to his Cyprus perspective, he raised questions on the "national policy over Cyprus" claiming that he was toying with ‘different formulations for solution’, and he did not hesitate to make a reversal of his policy.^[23] He was criticized on the grounds that international issues do not have much freedom to make mistakes and mistakes are not reversible.

[edit] Iraq

Faced with domestic demands to intervene in Iraq against the PKK and in defence of the Turkmens around Kirkuk, Erdoğan pursued a more proactive foreign policy. In January 2007 Erdoğan suggested that Turkey might intervene, but preferred for the interim to rely on diplomacy.^[21]

[edit] 2007 elections

[edit] Presidential election

See also: Republic Protests, Turkish presidential election, 2007, and Turkish constitutional referendum, 2007

On April 14, 2007, an estimated 300,000 people marched in Ankara to protest the possible candidacy of Erdoğan in the 2007 presidential election, afraid that if elected as President of Turkey Erdoğan would alter the secular nature of the Turkish state.^[24] Erdoğan announced on April 24, 2007 that the party had decided to nominate Abdullah Gül as the AKP candidate in the presidential election.^[25][26] The protests continued over the next several weeks, with over one million reported at an April 29 rally in Istanbul,^[27][28] tens of thousands reported at separate protests on May 4 in Manisa and Çanakkale,^[29][30][31] and anywhere from one to two million in İzmir on May 13.^[32][33][34]

Early parliamentary elections were called after the failure of the parties in parliament to agree on the next Turkish president. At the same time, Erdoğan claimed the failure to select a president is a failure of the Turkish political system and proposed to change the constitution. The redesign of the position of presidency, moving away from a position that balances powers in the parliament is faced with reaction from the other parties. The final decision will be decided in the Turkish constitutional referendum, 2007.

[edit] General elections

See also: Turkish general election, 2007

Erdoğan called for early general elections. The stage of the elections was set for a fight for legitimacy in the eyes of voters between his government, which has its roots in political Islam, and the country’s secularist movement. Erdoğan used the events at "2007 Presidency elections" as a part of the general election campaign of his party. In the night of July 22, it became obvious that AKP had won an important victory over the opposition, garnering over 46 percent of the popular vote. July 22 elections were only the second time in Turkish Republic's 74-year history whereby an incumbent governing party won an election by increasing its share of popular support.

[edit] Prime Ministership, 2007-Present

[edit] Domestic policies

On 31 August 2007 the new government announced plans to pursue the following policies:

• The Constitution will be reformed to make it short and clear, bringing law-making, enforcement and the role of the judiciary in line with parliamentary democracy
• The government will openly work to produce a strong civil society enjoying wider democracy and freedom.
• Economy - by 2013 the average income will be 10,000 USD, while national income from tourism will be 40 billion dollars. in 2008 VAT for the tourism industry will be reduced from 18% to 8%. Inflation will be kept to single figures.
• Structural reforms - priority will be given to reforming local government and the civil service, weighting towards regional support.
• Education - 50% of children will be provided with pre-school education. Class-size will be limited to 30 children.
• 2B class forest - land that is no longer viable forest will be sold (bringing the treasury 25 billion dollars).

[edit] Foreign policies

• The government argues that EU reforms will proceed quickly. They say that their goal is to continue the efforts to eliminate disputes with neighbouring countries.^[35]

[edit] Proposed ban from politics, 2008

Wikisource has original text related to this article:

:tr:Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi'nin Temelli Kapatılması İstemine İlişkin Savcılık İddianamesi

On 14 March 2008 Turkey's Chief Prosecutor asked the country's Constitutional Court to ban the AK party and ban Erdoğan from politics for five years. Erdoğan and 70 other party members were accused of being involved in anti-secular activities. Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalcinkaya said he believed there was enough evidence that Erdoğan has worked against Turkey's secular constitution.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

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Recep Tayyip Erdoğan

• Prime Minister's Office
• AK Parti
• 2003 Speech by Erdogan - "Democracy in the Middle East, Pluralism in Europe: Turkish View"
• Erdogan speaks at the Council on Foreign Relations, Sep 27, 2007
• Turkishpolitix.com - Online dossier with up-to-date news about Erdogan"
• A supportive article about his political career (Turkish)
• An unsupportive article about his political slogans (Turkish)
• Sabah.com.tr - 1 milyar $'ın sırrı (Turkish)