Recep Tayyip Erdoğan (;[2]Turkish: [ɾeˈdʒep tajˈjip ˈæɾdoːan] (
listen); born 26 February 1954) is a Turkish politician serving as President of Turkey 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 and2011 before standing down upon his election as President in 2014. Coming from an Islamistpolitical background and as a self-describedconservative democrat, he has promotedsocially conservative and liberal economicpolicies in his administration.[3] Under his administration, Turkey has experienceddemocratic backsliding.[4]
Erdoğan played football for Kasımpaşa before being elected in 1994 as the Mayor of Istanbulfrom 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.[5] 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.[6]
Erdoğan's government oversaw negotiations for Turkey's membership in the European Union, an economic recovery following afinancial crash in 2001, changes to the constitution via referenda in 2007 and 2010, aNeo-Ottoman foreign policy, and investments in infrastructure including roads, airports, and a high-speed train network,[7][8] and finally theTurkish currency and debt crisis of 2018.[9][10][11] With the help of the Cemaat Movement led by preacher Fethullah Gülen, Erdoğan was able to curb the power of themilitary through the Sledgehammer andErgenekon court cases. In late 2012, his government began peace negotiations with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to end theongoing PKK insurgency that began in 1978. The ceasefire broke down in 2015, leading to a renewed escalation in conflict. In 2016, acoup d'état was unsuccessfully attemptedagainst Erdoğan and Turkish state institutions. This was followed by purges and an ongoing state of emergency.
Political scientists no longer consider Turkey as a fully fledged democracy, citing the lack of free and fair elections, purges and jailing of opponents, curtailed press freedom, and Erdoğan's efforts to broadening his executive powers and minimize his executive accountability.[4][12][13][14] Widespread 2013 protests broke out against the perceivedauthoritarianism of Erdoğan's policies; he criticized the protestors and then had them suppressed by police, which killed 22 people, injured numerous others and brought international condemnation from foreign governments and human rights organizations. 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.[15][16][17] 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. Erdoğan's government lifted the bans when directed by court orders,[19][20][21]but later reimposed them.[22][23] In 2016, Turkey under Erdoğan began a crackdown onfreedom of the press; in 2016 and 2017, more journalists have been incarcerated in Turkey than in any other country.[24] He was re-elected in the 2018 general election and assumed the role of Executive President and became both the head of state and head of government.
Personal life and education
Erdoğan was born in the Kasımpaşa neighborhood inIstanbul, to which his family had moved from Rize Province. His parents were Ahmet (1905–88) and Tenzile Erdoğan.[25] In August 2003 during his official visit inTbilisi, Erdoğan reportedly explained his Georgian roots. He told the story of his Adjarian forefathers, which migrated after the Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) from Batumi toRize.[26][27] According to journalistic investigation held byOdaTV in 2009, his grandfather's nickname "Bakatalı" is claimed to be originating from the village of Bagata, today in the Tskhinvali District of South Ossetia.[28] Georgians in Turkey are basically Muslims, who had arrived during Ottoman times in several waves of migration from Caucasus, due to the Russo-Turkish Wars.
However in a 2014 televised interview on the NTV news network, he said, "You wouldn't believe the things they have said about me. They have said I am Georgian... forgive me for saying this... even much uglier things, they have even called me an Armenian, but I am Turkish."[29][30]
Erdoğan spent his early childhood in Rize, where his father was a Captain[31] in the Turkish Coast Guard.[32] Erdoğan had a brother Mustafa (b. 1958) and sister Vesile (b. 1965).[31]His summer holidays were mostly spent in Güneysu, Rize, where his family originates. Throughout his life he often returned to this spiritual home, and in 2015 he opened a vast mosque on a mountaintop near this village.[33] The family returned to Istanbul when Erdoğan was 13 years old.[32]
As a teenager, he sold lemonade and sesame buns (simit) on the streets of the city's rougher districts to earn extra money.[32] Brought up in an observant Muslim family, Erdoğan graduated from Kasımpaşa Piyale primary school in 1965, and İmam Hatip school, a religious vocational high school, in 1973. He received his high school diploma from Eyüp High School. According to his official biography, he subsequently studied Business Administration at the Aksaray School of Economics and Commercial Sciences, now known as Marmara University's Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences[1] — although several Turkish sources dispute that he attended or graduated.[34][35][36]
In his youth, Erdoğan played semi-professional football at a local club.[1][37][38] Fenerbahçewanted him to transfer to the club but his father prevented it.[39] The stadium of the local football club in the district where he grew up, Kasımpaşa S.K. is named after him.
Erdoğan married Emine Gülbaran (born 1955, Siirt) on 4 July 1978.[40] They have two sons; Ahmet Burak and Necmettin Bilal, and two daughters, Esra and Sümeyye.[40] His father, Ahmet Erdoğan, died in 1988 and his 88-year-old mother, Tenzile Erdoğan, died in 2011.[41] He is a member of the Community of İskenderpaşa, a Turkish sufistic community of Naqshbandi tariqah.[42][43]
Early political career
While studying business administration[citation needed] and playing semi-professional football, Erdoğan engaged in politics by joining the National Turkish Student Union, an anti-communist action group. In 1974, he wrote, directed and played the lead role in the playMaskomya, which presented Freemasonry, Communism and Judaism as evil.[44] In 1976, he became the head of the Beyoğlu youth branch of the Islamist National Salvation Party(MSP),[45] and was later promoted to chair of the Istanbul youth branch of the party.
After the 1980 military coup, Erdoğan followed most of Necmettin Erbakan's followers into the Islamist Welfare Party. He became the party's Beyoğlu district chair in 1984, and in 1985 he became the chair of the Istanbul city branch. He was elected to parliament in 1991, but barred from taking his seat.[citation needed]
Mayor of Istanbul (1994–98)
In the local elections of 27 March 1994, Erdoğan was elected Mayor of Istanbul, with a plurality (25.19%) of the popular vote. He was pragmatic in office, tackling many chronic problems in Istanbul including water shortage, pollution and traffic chaos. The water shortage problem was solved with the laying of hundreds of kilometers of new pipelines. The garbage problem was solved with the establishment of state-of-the-art recycling facilities. While Erdoğan was in office, air pollution was reduced through a plan developed to switch to natural gas. He changed the public buses to environmentally friendly ones. The city's traffic and transportation jams were reduced with more than fifty bridges, viaducts, and highways built. He took precautions to prevent corruption, using measures to ensure that municipal funds were used prudently. He paid back a major portion of IstanbulMetropolitan Municipality's two billion dollar debt and invested four billion dollars in the city.[46]
Erdoğan initiated the first roundtable of mayors during the Istanbul conference, which led to a global, organized movement of mayors. A seven-member international jury from the United Nations unanimously awarded Erdoğan the UN-HABITAT award.[47][ink_rot" title="Wikipedia
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Imprisonment
In 1998, the fundamentalist Welfare Party was declared unconstitutional on the grounds of threatening the secularism of Turkey and was shut down by the Turkish constitutional court. Erdoğan became a prominent speaker at demonstrations held by his party colleagues.[48]
In December 1997 in Siirt, Erdoğan recited a poem from a work written by Ziya Gökalp, a pan-Turkish activist of the early 20th century.[49] His recitation included verses translated as "The mosques are our barracks, the domes our helmets, the minarets our bayonets and the faithful our soldiers...."[32] which are not in the original version of the poem. Erdoğan said the poem had been approved by the education ministry to be published in textbooks.[50] Under article 312/2 of the Turkish penal code his recitation was regarded as an incitement to violence and religious or racial hatred.[51] He was given a ten-month prison sentence of which he served four months, from 24 March 1999 to 27 July 1999.[5] Due to his conviction, Erdoğan was forced to give up his mayoral position. The conviction also stipulated a political ban, which prevented him from participating in parliamentary elections.[52] He had appealed for the sentence to be converted to a monetary fine, but it was reduced to 120 days instead.[53] In 2017, this period of Erdoğan's life was made into a film titled Reis.[54]
Prime Minister (2003–14)
General elections
An election campaign poster featuring Erdoğan: "Istanbul is Ready, Target 2023",
Taksim Square,
Istanbul.
In 2001, Erdoğan established the Justice and Development Party (AKP).[citation needed] The elections of 2002 were the first elections in which Erdoğan participated as a party leader. All parties previously elected to parliament failed to win enough votes to re-enter the parliament. The AKP won 34.3% of the national vote and formed the new government. Turkish stocks rose more than 7% on Monday morning. Politicians of the previous generation, such as Ecevit, Bahceli,Yılmaz and Çiller, resigned. The second largest party, the CHP, received 19.4% of the votes. The AKP won a landslide victory in the parliament, taking nearly two-thirds of the seats. Erdoğan could not become Prime Minister as he was still banned from politics by the judiciary for his speech in Siirt. Gül became the Prime Minister instead. In December 2002, the Supreme Election Board canceled the general election results from Siirt due to voting irregularities and scheduled a new election for 9 February 2003. By this time, party leader Erdoğan was able to run for parliament due to a legal change made possible by the opposition Republican People's Party. The AKP duly listed Erdoğan as a candidate for the rescheduled election, which he won, becoming Prime Minister after Gül handed over the post.[55]
On 14 April 2007, an estimated 300,000 people marched inAnkara to protest against the possible candidacy of Erdoğan in the 2007 presidential election, afraid that if elected as President, he would alter the secular nature of the Turkish state.[56] Erdoğan announced on 24 April 2007 that the party had nominated Abdullah Gül as the AKP candidate in the presidential election.[57] The protests continued over the next several weeks, with over one million people reported to have turned out at a 29 April rally in Istanbul,[58] tens of thousands at separate protests on 4 May in Manisa and Çanakkale,[59] and one million in İzmir on 13 May.[60]
The stage of the elections of 2007 was set for a fight for legitimacy in the eyes of voters between his government and the CHP. Erdoğan used the event that took place during the ill-fated Presidential elections a few months earlier as a part of the general election campaign of his party. On 22 July 2007, the AKP won an important victory over the opposition, garnering 46.7% of the popular vote. 22 July elections marked only the second time in the Republic of Turkey's history whereby an incumbent governing party won an election by increasing its share of popular support.[61] On 14 March 2008, Turkey's Chief Prosecutor asked the country's Constitutional Court to ban Erdoğan's governing party.[62]The party escaped a ban on 30 July 2008, a year after winning 46.7% of the vote in national elections, although judges did cut the party's public funding by 50%.[63]
In the June 2011 elections, Erdoğan's governing party won 327 seats (49.83% of the popular vote) making Erdoğan the only prime minister in Turkey's history to win three consecutive general elections, each time receiving more votes than the previous election. The second party, the Republican People's Party (CHP), received 135 seats (25.94%), the nationalist MHP received 53 seats (13.01%), and the Independents received 35 seats (6.58%).[64]
Kurdish issue
In 2009, Prime Minister Erdoğan's government announced a plan to help end the quarter-century-long Turkey–Kurdistan Workers' Party conflict that had cost more than 40,000 lives. The government's plan, supported by the European Union, allowed the Kurdish language to be used in all broadcast media and political campaigns, and restored Kurdish names to cities and towns that had been given Turkish ones.[65] Erdoğan said, "We took a courageous step to resolve chronic issues that constitute an obstacle along Turkey's development, progression and empowerment".[65] Erdoğan passed a partial amnesty to reduce penalties faced by many members of the Kurdish guerrilla movement PKK who had surrendered to the government.[66] On 23 November 2011, during a televised meeting of his party in Ankara, he apologised on behalf of the state for the Dersim massacre, where many Alevis and Zazas were killed.[67]
Armenian Genocide
Prime Minister Erdoğan expressed multiple times that Turkey would acknowledge the mass killings of up to 1.5 million Armenians during World War I as genocide only after a thorough investigation by a joint Turkish-Armenian commission consisting of historians,archaeologists, political scientists and other experts.[68][69][better source needed] In 2005, Erdoğan and the main opposition party leader Deniz Baykal wrote a letter to Armenian President Robert Kocharian, proposing the creation of a joint Turkish-Armenian commission.[70] Armenian Foreign Minister Vartan Oskanian rejected the offer because he asserted that the proposal itself was "insincere and not serious." He added: "This issue cannot be considered at historical level with Turks, who themselves politicized the problem."[71][72]
In December 2008, Erdoğan criticised the I Apologize campaign by Turkish intellectuals to recognize the Armenian Genocide, saying, "I neither accept nor support this campaign. We did not commit a crime, therefore we do not need to apologise ... It will not have any benefit other than stirring up trouble, disturbing our peace and undoing the steps which have been taken."[73] In November 2009, he said, "it is not possible for those who belong to the Muslim faith to carry out genocide."[74][75]
In 2011, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan ordered the Monument to Humanity, a statue dedicated to fostering Armenian and Turkish relations, to be destroyed.
In 2011, Erdoğan ordered the tearing-down of theStatue of Humanity, a Turkish-Armenian friendship monument in Kars, which was commissioned in 2006 and represented a metaphor of the rapprochement of the two countries after many years of dispute over the events of 1915. Erdoğan justified the removal by stating that the monument was offensively close to the tomb of an 11th-century Islamic scholar, and that its shadow ruined the view of that site, while Kars municipality officials said it was illegally erected in a protected area. However, the former mayor of Kars who approved the original construction of the monument said the municipality was destroying not just a "monument to humanity" but "humanity itself". The demolition was not unopposed; among its detractors were several Turkish artists. Two of them, the painter Bedri Baykam and his associate, Pyramid Art Gallery general coordinator Tugba Kurtulmus, were stabbed after a meeting with other artists at the Istanbul Akatlar cultural center.[76]
On 23 April 2014, Erdoğan's office issued a statement in nine languages (including two dialects of Armenian), offering condolences for the mass killings of Armenians and stating that the events of 1915 had inhumane consequences. The statement described the mass killings as the two nations' shared pain and said: "Having experienced events which had inhumane consequences – such as relocation – during the First World War, (it) should not prevent Turks and Armenians from establishing compassion and mutually humane attitudes among one another".[77]
Human rights
During Erdoğan's time as Prime Minister, the far-reaching powers of the 1991 Anti-Terror Law were reduced and the Democratic initiative process was initiated, with the goal to improve democratic standards in general and the rights of ethnic and religious minorities in particular. However, after Turkey's bid to join the European Union stalled, European officials noted a return to more authoritarian ways,[78] notably on freedom of speech,[79][80][81] freedom of the press[82][83][84] and Kurdish minority rights.[85][86][87][88]Demands by activists for the recognition of LGBT rights were publicly rejected by government members,[89] and members of the Turkish LGBT community were insulted by cabinet members.[90]
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President
George W. Bushmeets with Erdoğan in the
Oval Office on 5 November 2007
Reporters Without Borders observed a continuous decrease in Freedom of the Press during Erdoğan's later terms, with a rank of around 100 on the Press Freedom Index during his first term and a rank of 154 out of a total of 179 countries in 2013.[91] Freedom House saw a slight recovery in later years and awarded Turkey a Press Freedom Score of 55/100 in 2012 after a low point of 48/100 in 2006.[92][93][94][95]
In 2011, Erdoğan's government made legal reforms to return properties of Christian and Jewish minorities which were seized by the Turkish government in the 1930s.[96] The total value of the properties returned reached $2 billion (USD).[97]
Under Erdoğan, the Turkish government tightened the laws on the sale and consumption of alcohol, banning all advertising and increasing the tax on alcoholic beverages.[98]
Economy
Unemployment rate of Turkey between 2000 and 2014
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Erdoğan,
Vladimir Putin and
Silvio Berlusconi at the opening of the
Blue Stream gas pipeline in November 2005
In 2002, Erdoğan inherited a Turkish economy that was beginning to recover from a recession as a result of reforms implemented by Kemal Derviş.[99] Erdoğan supported Finance MinisterAli Babacan in enforcing macro-economic policies. Erdoğan tried to attract more foreign investors to Turkey and lifted many government regulations. The cash-flow into the Turkish economy between 2002 and 2012 caused a growth of 64% in real GDP and a 43% increase in GDP per capita; considerably higher numbers were commonly advertised but these did not account for the inflation of the US dollar between 2002 and 2012.[100] The average annual growth in GDP per capita was 3.6%. The growth in real GDP between 2002 and 2012 was higher than the values from developed countries, but was close to average when developing countries are also taken into account. The ranking of the Turkish economy in terms of GDP moved slightly from 17 to 16 during this decade. A major consequence of the policies between 2002 and 2012 was the widening of the current account deficit from 600 million USD to 58 billion USD (2013 est.)[101]
Since 1961, Turkey has signed 19 IMF loan accords. Erdoğan's government satisfied the budgetary and market requirements of the two during his administration and received every loan installment, the only time any Turkish government has done so.[102] Erdoğan inherited a debt of $23.5 billion to the IMF, which was reduced to $0.9 billion in 2012. He decided not to sign a new deal. Turkey's debt to the IMF was thus declared to be completely paid and he announced that the IMF could borrow from Turkey.[103] In 2010, five-year credit default swaps for Turkey's sovereign debt were trading at a record low of 1.17%, below those of nine EU member countries and Russia. In 2002, the Turkish Central Bank had $26.5 billion in reserves. This amount reached $92.2 billion in 2011. During Erdoğan's leadership, inflation fell from 32% to 9.0% in 2004. Since then, Turkish inflation has continued to fluctuate around 9% and is still one of the highest inflation rates in the world.[104] The Turkish public debt as a percentage of annual GDP declined from 74% in 2002 to 39% in 2009. In 2012, Turkey had a lower ratio of public debt to GDP than 21 of 27 members of the European Union and a lower budget deficit to GDP ratio than 23 of them.[105]
In 2003, Erdoğan's government pushed through the Labor Act, a comprehensive reform of Turkey's labor laws. The law greatly expanded the rights of employees, establishing a 45-hour workweek and limiting overtime work to 270 hours a year, provided legal protection against discrimination due to sex, religion, or political affiliation, prohibited discrimination between permanent and temporary workers, entitled employees terminated without "valid cause" to compensation, and mandated written contracts for employment arrangements lasting a year or more.[106][107]
Education
Erdoğan increased the budget of the Ministry of Education from 7.5 billion lira in 2002 to 34 billion lira in 2011, the highest share of the national budget given to one ministry.[108]Before his prime ministership the military received the highest share of the national budget.Compulsory education was increased from eight years to twelve.[109] In 2003, the Turkish government, together with UNICEF, started a campaign called "Come on girls, let's go to school!" (Turkish: Haydi Kızlar Okula!). The goal of this campaign was to close the gender-gap in primary school enrollment through the provision of a quality basic education for all girls, especially in southeast Turkey.[110]
In 2005, the parliament granted amnesty to students expelled from universities before 2003. The amnesty applied to students dismissed on academic or disciplinary grounds.[111] In 2004, textbooks became free of charge and since 2008 every province in Turkey has its own university.[112] During Erdoğan's Premiership, the number of universities in Turkeynearly doubled, from 98 in 2002 to 186 in October 2012.[113]
The Prime Minister kept his campaign promises by starting the f@tih project in which all state schools, from preschool to high school level, received a total of 620,000 smart boards, while tablet computers were distributed to 17 million students and approximately one million teachers and administrators.[114]
In June 2017 a draft proposal by the ministry of education was approved by Erdoğan, in which the curriculum for schools excluded the teaching of the theory of evolution of Charles Darwin by 2019. From then on the teaching will be postponed and start at undergraduate level.[115]
Infrastructure
Under Erdoğan's government, the number of airports in Turkey increased from 26 to 50.[116]Between the founding of the Republic of Turkey in 1923 and 2002, there had been 6000 km of dual carriageway roads created. Between 2002 and 2011, another 13500 km of expressway were built. Due to these measures, the number of motor accidents fell by 50 percent.[117] For the first time in Turkish history, high speed railway lines were constructed, and the country's high-speed train service began in 2009.[118] In 8 years, 1076 km of railway were built and 5449 km of railway renewed. The construction of Marmaray, an undersea rail tunnel under the Bosphorus strait, started in 2004. When completed, it will be the world's deepest undersea immersed tube tunnel.[citation needed] Construction of the 1.9 km long Yavuz Sultan Selim Bridge began in 2013.[119] The chosen name for the bridge led to protests by Alevis in Turkey because of the role Sultan Selim I, nicknamed "the Grim" due to his cruelty, played in the Ottoman persecution of Alevis.[120]
Justice
In March 2006, the Supreme Board of Judges and Prosecutors (HSYK) held a press conference to publicly protest the obstruction of the appointment of judges to the high courts for over 10 months. The HSYK said Erdoğan wanted to fill the vacant posts with his own appointees. Erdoğan was accused of creating a rift with Turkey's highest court of appeal, the Yargıtay, and high administrative court, the Danıştay. Erdoğan stated that the constitution gave the power to assign these posts to his elected party.[121]
In May 2007, the head of Turkey's High Court asked prosecutors to consider whether Erdoğan should be charged over critical comments regarding the election of Abdullah Gülas President.[121] 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 by other parties meant there was no quorum. Prosecutors 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.[122]
The Turkish parliament agreed to reduce the age of candidacy to the parliament from 30 to 25 and abolished the death penalty in all instances, including war time.[citation needed]
Women and demographics
Erdoğan supported the continuation of Turkey's high population growth rate and, in 2008, commented that to ensure the Turkish population remained young every family would need to have at least three children.[123][124] He repeated this statement on numerous occasions.[125] In 2010, Turkey's population was estimated at 73,700,000, with a growth rate of 1.21% per annum (2009 figure).[126]
On 26 May 2012, answering the question of a reporter after a UN conference on population and development in Turkey, Erdoğan said that abortion is murder, saying, "You either kill a baby in the mother's womb or you kill it after birth. In many cases [not all], there's no difference."[127]
Erdoğan has stated that he opposes Turkey's high and growing rate of caesarean sectionbirths because he believes that they reduce the fertility of Turkish women, and he is in favor of limiting the number of such births in Turkish hospitals.[128][129]
In a 2010 meeting with women NGO representatives, asked why he kept addressing them exclusively as mothers, Erdoğan said: "I do not believe in the equality of men and women. I believe in equal opportunities. Men and women are different and complementary."[130] In 2014, he addressed the Istanbul Women and Justice Summit of the Women and Democracy Association (Turkish: Kadın ve Demokrasi Derneği, or KADEM): "Our religion [Islam] has defined a position for women [in society]: motherhood. You cannot explain this to feminists because they don't accept the concept of motherhood." Calling for "equivalency" between the genders, he stated: "You cannot bring women and men into equal positions; that is against nature because their nature is different," while reaffirming that full equality regardless of gender before the law should be maintained.[131]
Health care
After assuming power in 2003, Erdoğan's government embarked on a sweeping reform program of the Turkish healthcare system, called the Health Transformation Program (HTP), to greatly increase the quality of healthcare and protect all citizens from financial risks. Its introduction coincided with the period of sustained economic growth, allowing the Turkish government to put greater investments into the healthcare system. As part of the reforms, the "Green Card" program, which provides health benefits to the poor, was expanded in 2004.[132] The reform program aimed at increasing the ratio of private to state-run healthcare, which, along with long queues in state-run hospitals, resulted in the rise of private medical care in Turkey, forcing state-run hospitals to compete by increasing quality.
In April 2006, Erdoğan unveiled a social security reform package demanded by theInternational Monetary Fund under a loan deal. The move, which Erdoğan called one of the most radical reforms ever, was passed with fierce opposition. Turkey's three social security bodies were united under one roof, bringing equal health services and retirement benefits for members of all three bodies. The previous system had been criticized for reserving the best healthcare for civil servants and relegating others to wait in long queues. Under the second bill, everyone under the age of 18 years was entitled to free health services, irrespective of whether they pay premiums to any social security organization. The bill also envisages a gradual increase in the retirement age: starting from 2036, the retirement age will increase to 65 by 2048 for both women and men.[133]
In January 2008, the Turkish Parliament adopted a law to prohibit smoking in most public places. Erdoğan is outspokenly anti-smoking.[134]
2007 and 2010 Constitutional Referendums
After the opposition parties deadlocked the 2007 presidential election by boycotting the parliament, the ruling AKP proposed a constitutional reform package. The reform package was first vetoed by president Sezer. Then he applied to the Turkish constitutional court about the reform package, because the president is unable to veto amendments for the second time. The Turkish constitutional court did not find any problems in the packet and 68.95% of the voters supported the constitutional changes.[135] The reforms consisted of: electing the president by popular vote instead of by parliament, reducing the presidential term from seven years to five, allowing the president to stand for re-election for a second term, holding general elections every four years instead of five and reducing the quorum of lawmakers needed for parliamentary decisions from 367 to 184.
Reforming the Constitution was one of the main pledges of the AKP during the 2007 election campaign. The main opposition party CHP was not interested in altering the Constitution on a big scale, making it impossible to form a Constitutional Commission(Anayasa Uzlaşma Komisyonu).[136] The amendments lacked the two-thirds majority needed to instantly become law, but secured 336 votes in the 550 seat parliament – enough to put the proposals to a referendum. The reform package included a number of issues such as the right of individuals to appeal to the highest court, the creation of theombudsman's office, the possibility to negotiate a nationwide labour contract, gender equality, the ability of civilian courts to convict members of the military, the right of civil servants to go on strike, a privacy law, and the structure of the Constitutional Court. The referendum was agreed by a majority of 58%.[137]
Gezi Park protests
Demonstrators in Taksim Square in June 2013 during the Gezi Park protests
2013 Gezi Park protests against the perceivedauthoritarianism of Erdoğan and his policies, starting from a small sit-in in Istanbul in defense of a city park.[138] After the police's intense reaction with tear gas, the protests grew each day. Faced by the largest mass protest in a decade, Erdoğan made this controversial remark in a televised speech: "The police were there yesterday, they are there today, and they will be there tomorrow." After weeks of clashes in the streets of Istanbul, his government at first apologized to the protestors[139] and called for aplebiscite, but then ordered a crackdown on the protesters.[138][140]
2013 corruption arrests
In December 2013, Turkish police detained more than 50 people[141] and arrested 16 others, including the general manager of Halkbank and the sons of three government ministers, on charges of corruption.[142] Although Erdoğan blamed foreign ambassadors and pro-Erdoğan newspapers accused the United States or Israel of a plot, outside analysts attribute the arrests to a power struggle between the Prime Minister and Fethullah Gülen. Gülen, who lives in the U.S., leads a religious movement that had supported the AKP's rise to power. In late 2013, Erdoğan's government proposed shutting down Turkish private schools, many of which are funded by Gülen. Gülen's supporters are believed to have wide influence in the police and judiciary in Turkey.[143]
In late December, Hürriyet and Yeni Şafak papers published comments by Erdoğan stating that he believes he is the ultimate target of a corruption and bribery probe of his allies. The Turkish Prime Minister told journalists that anyone attempting to enmesh him in the scandal would be "left empty handed." Erdoğan reshuffled his Cabinet on 25 December, replacing 10 ministers hours after three ministers, whose sons were detained in relation to the probe, resigned.[144]
Telephone recordings and social media
A file containing five audio recordings of conversations between Erdoğan and his son from a 26-hour period beginning 17 December 2013, in which he appeared to be instructing his son to conceal very large amounts of money, was posted to YouTube and widely discussed on social media.[145][146] On 26 February 2014, Erdoğan acknowledged that his telephone had been tapped, but denied that the conversation was real, instead calling it an "immoralmontage" that had been "dubbed" by combining other conversations. An analysis byJoshua Marpet of the United States, published by McClatchy, concluded that the recordings were "probably real", and if not, the fabrication was done with a sophistication he had not previously seen.[147]
On the night of 26 February 2014, Turkey's Parliament, dominated by Erdoğan's Justice and Development Party, passed a bill that allowed the government the power to block Internet sites, subject to court review within three days, and granting it access to Internet traffic data. Another bill previously approved by a parliamentary committee would grant theMİT intelligence service access to data held by the government, as well as private institutions and courts. The following day President Abdullah Gül approved placing an investigative agency that appoints judges and prosecutors under the control of Erdoğan's justice minister.[147]
On 20 March, Erdoğan made a speech promising to "rip out the roots" of the Twitter service. Hours later the telecommunications regulator BTK blocked DNS service to the site, citing four court orders the Turkish government had made requiring them to remove content to preserve privacy that had not been heeded. Sources covering the story attributed this to the use of Twitter to share links to the Erdoğan recordings on YouTube.[148] Erdoğan also threatened to ban Facebook. However, the block of Twitter proved ineffective, with traffic increasing a record 138%, and #TwitterisblockedinTurkey becoming the top trending term worldwide.[149] To circumvent the block, Google suggested Turks use Google Public DNS at 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, numbers which were soon graffitied in dozens of locations around Istanbul.[150][151] 
resident Abdullah Gül criticized the Twitter ban, defying it himself.[152][153] Two months later, on 3 June, Turkey's telecommunications watchdog ordered the ban to be lifted, after a ruling by the Constitutional Court.[154]
Foreign policy
Turkey under Erdoğan was named by the Bush Administration as a part of the "coalition of the willing" that was central to the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[155]
On 3 October 2005 negotiations began for Turkey's accession to the European Union.[156]
Under Erdoğan, Iraq and Turkey signed 48 trade agreements on issues including security, energy, and water. The Turkish government attempted to mend relations with Iraqi Kurdistan by opening a Turkish university in Erbil, and a Turkish consulate in Mosul.[157] Erdoğan's government fostered economic and political relations with Irbil, and Turkey began to consider theKurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq as an ally against Maliki's government.[158]
Relations between Greece and Turkey were normalized during Erdoğan's tenure as prime minister. In 2007, Erdoğan and Greek Prime Minister Kostas Karamanlisinaugurated the Greek-Turkish natural gas pipeline giving Caspian gas its first direct Western outlet.[159] Erdoğan and his party strongly supported the EU-backed referendum to reunify Cyprus in 2004.[160] Negotiations about Turkey's possible EU membership came to a standstill in 2009 and 2010, when Turkish ports were closed to Cypriot ships in "revenge" for the economic isolation of the internationally unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus and the failure of the EU to end the isolation, as it had promised in 2004.[161] The Turkish government continues its refusal to recognize the Republic of Cyprus.[162]
Erdoğan condemned the Saudi-led intervention in Bahrain and characterized the Saudi movement as "a new Karbala." He demanded withdrawal of Saudi forces from Bahrain.[163]
Erdoğan visited Egypt on 12 September 2011, soon after Turkey had ejected Israeli ambassadors, cutting off all diplomatic relations with Israel because Israel refused to apologize for the Gaza flotilla raid which killed eight Turkish and one Turco-American.[164]This was the first visit to Egypt by a Prime Minister of Turkey after the Egyptian Revolution of 2011.[164][165]
Erdoğan stated in a 2011 interview that he supported secularism for Egypt, which generated an angry reaction among Islamic movements, especially the Freedom and Justice party – the political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood.[166] However, commentators suggest that by forming an alliance with the military junta during Egypt's transition to democracy, Erdoğan may have tipped the balance in favor of an authoritarian government.[166]
Erdoğan visited Israel on 1 May 2005, a gesture unusual for a leader of a Muslim majority country.[167] During his trip, Erdoğan visited the Yad Vashem, Israel's official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust.[167] The President of Israel Shimon Peres addressed the Turkish parliament during a visit in 2007, the first time an Israeli leader had addressed the legislature of a predominantly Muslim nation.[168] Their relationship worsened at the 2009 World Economic Forum conference over Israel's actions during the Gaza War.[169] Erdoğan was interrupted by the moderator while he was responding to Peres, and left the panel, accusing the moderator of giving Peres more time than all the other panelists combined.[170] Tensions increased further following the Gaza flotilla raid in May 2010. Erdoğan strongly condemned the raid, describing it as "state terrorism", and demanded an Israeli apology.[171] In February 2013, Erdoğan called Zionism a "crime against humanity", comparing it to Islamophobia, antisemitism, and fascism.[172] He later retracted the statement, saying he had been misinterpreted. He said "everyone should know" that his comments were directed at "Israeli policies", especially as regards to "Gaza and the settlements."[173][174] Erdoğan's statements were criticized by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, among others.[175][176]In August 2013, the Hürriyet reported that Erdoğan had claimed to have evidence of Israel's responsibility for the removal of Morsi from office in Egypt.[177] The Israeli and Egyptian governments dismissed the suggestion.[178][179]
Erdoğan among the world leaders seen here at the
G8 summit in 2009
On 12 May 2010, Turkey and Russia signed 17 agreements to enhance cooperation in energy and other fields, including pacts to build Turkey's first nuclear power plant and further plans for an oil pipeline from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean Sea. The leaders of both countries also signed an agreement on visa-free travel, enabling tourists to get into the country for free and stay there for up to 30 days.[180] In May 2010, the Turkish and Somali governments signed a military training agreement, in keeping with the provisions outlined in the Djibouti Peace Process.[181] Turkish Airlines became the first long-distance international commercial airline in two decades to resume flights to and from Mogadishu's Aden Adde International Airport.[182] Turkey also launched various development and infrastructure projects in Somalia including building several hospitals and helping renovate the National Assembly building.[182]
During Erdoğan's term of office, diplomatic relations between Turkey and Syria significantly deteriorated. In 2004, President Bashar al-Assad arrived in Turkey for the first official visit by a Syrian President in 57 years. In late 2004, Erdoğan signed a free trade agreement with Syria. Visa restrictions between the two countries were lifted in 2009, which caused an economic boom in the regions near the Syrian border.[183] However the relationship became strained following the outbreak of conflict in Syria in 2011. Erdoğan said he was trying to "cultivate a favorable relationship with whatever government would take the place of Assad",[184] and began directly supporting the armed opposition in Syria.[185] Erdoğan's policy of providing military training for anti-regime fighters has also created conflict with Syria's ally and neighbor, Iran.[186]
2014 presidential campaign
On 1 July 2014, Erdoğan was named the AKP's presidential candidate in the Turkish presidential election. His candidacy was announced by the Deputy President of the AKP,Mehmet Ali Şahin.
Erdoğan made a speech after the announcement and used the 'Erdoğan logo' for the first time. The logo was criticised because it was very similar to the logo that U.S. PresidentBarack Obama used in the 2008 presidential election.[187]
Erdoğan was elected as the President of Turkey in the first round of the election with 51.79% of the vote, obviating the need for a run-off by winning over 50%. The joint candidate of the CHP, MHP and 13 other opposition parties, former Organisation of Islamic Co-operation general secretary Ekmeleddin İhsanoğlu won 38.44% of the vote. The pro-Kurdish HDP candidate Selahattin Demirtaş won 9.76%.[188]
Electoral fraud
Erdoğan's government developed the SEÇSİS secure vote counting system ostensibly in order to reduce fraud. However, it has been criticised for being prone to manipulation.[189]Particular controversy was generated by the fact that the system was developed in the United States.[190]
The first significant cases of election fraud under Erdoğan's rule were documented during the 2009 local elections, where numerous cases of ballot paper theft were reported inAnkara and Adana.[191][192][193][194]
In the 2011 general election, a minivan containing ballot papers with a pre-stamped vote for the AKP was impounded by police in İzmir.[195] An independent candidate from Yalova also accused officials at polling stations of intimidating voters to vote for the AKP.[196][197]
Map showing provinces suffering from power outages during the counting process for the 2014 local elections
[198]Substantial levels of fraud were documented during the 2014 local elections, including the theft and burning of ballots cast both for and against the AKP and the intimidation of officials counting the votes, including European Union Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, by government forces.[199][200][201][202][203][204] Several cases of opposition votes being counted as invalid and vote totals per ballot box being recorded incorrectly also caused controversy.[citation needed] With an unusually high number of power outages occurring throughout the country while votes were being counted, the government was ridiculed when Energy Minister Taner Yıldız blamed them on cats enteringTransformers.[205][206][207] Erdoğan was criticised for disregarding the high number of fraud cases and declaring victory none-the-less. Significant cases of misconduct were documented in Yalova, Ankara, Antalya and Ağrı. The Supreme Electoral Council ordered a repeat of the election in Yalova and Ağrı, both of which the AKP had initially narrowly lost to the CHP and BDP respectively.
Despite strong surveillance by citizens during the 2014 presidential election, no serious cases of fraud were documented during the voting or counting process.[208] However, Erdoğan was still heavily scrutinised over what was perceived to be excessive media bias in his favour during the campaigning process.[209]
On 14 June 2018, in a video that was leaked to the public, President Erdogan is caught calling his party members to resort to electoral fraud, by "marking" the votes of an opposition party, HDP, in a bid to consolidate a better position for his own party at the 2018 June elections in Turkey.[210]
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