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Recep Tayyip Erdogan
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Recep Tayyip Erdogan (b. February 26, 1954 in Istanbul, Turkey) is a Turkish politician, a former mayor of Istanbul and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey since 14 March, 2003. He is also the chairman of the Justice and Development Party ( - "AK Parti"), which holds a majority of the seats in the Turkish Parliament.
Personal life and education
Recep Tayyip Erdogan was born, and mostly grew up, in the Kasimpasa district of Istanbul, a less than affluent neighborhood, famous for its macho honor code.
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Encyclopedia
Recep Tayyip Erdogan (b. February 26, 1954 in Istanbul, Turkey) is a Turkish politician, a former mayor of Istanbul and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Turkey since 14 March, 2003. He is also the chairman of the Justice and Development Party ( - "AK Parti"), which holds a majority of the seats in the Turkish Parliament.
Personal life and education
Recep Tayyip Erdogan was born, and mostly grew up, in the Kasimpasa district of Istanbul, a less than affluent neighborhood, famous for its macho honor code. Kasimpasa men are known to be quick to anger, painfully proud and blunt in word, and he has always been proud of being one. Erdogan descends from a family of Adjara Georgian immigrants who had emigrated from Batumi, Georgia, to Rize, in the Black Sea Region of Turkey.
Erdogan spent his early childhood in Rize where his father was a member of the Turkish Coast Guard. The family returned to Istanbul when Erdogan was 13 years old. As a teenager, he sold lemonade and sesame buns on the streets of Istanbul's rougher districts to earn extra money. After graduating from a religious high school (Imam Hatip school) he studied management at Marmara University's Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences. In his youth, Erdogan played semi-professional football in a local club. The stadium of the local football club of the district he grew up in, Kasimpasa S.K., a team which played in the Turkish Süper Lig before being relegated in June 2008, is named after him.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan married Emine Erdogan (née Gülbaran) (b. 1955 in Siirt), whom he met during a conference, on 4 July, 1978. The couple has two sons (Ahmet Burak, Necmeddin Bilâl) and two daughters (Esra, Sümeyye). Erdogan 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. Erdogan said that he doesn't have any problems with his wife, Emine Erdogan, who is of Arab ancestry and originally from a different Muslim denomination (Shafii/Ash'ari).
Early political career
Mayor of Istanbul, 1994-1998
During his tenure, he delivered a controversial speech on the subject of secularism in Turkey, stating at the opening ceremony of the now-defunct Welfare Party's Istanbul Ümraniye District Bureau that "It is not possible to be secular and Muslim at the same time. They are continuously saying, "Secularism is in danger". It will be, if this nation demands it. You can not prevent it. The Islamic nation is waiting for the rise of the Muslim Turkish nation. We will. This rebellion will start".
This led Ankara state prosecutor of the time, Nuh Mete Yüksel, to open an investigation against him.
However, since the AKP era his position has dramatically shifted and he has repeatedly reiterated his support of secularism.
Imprisonment, 1998
Erdogan's Islamist sympathies earned him a conviction in 1998. As Mayor of Istanbul, Erdogan was the most prominent mayor in the country. Because he was a national figure and hero to millions of Islamic-oriented voters, his case drew considerable attention. He was sentenced to ten months imprisonment, of which he served only four between March and July 1999. Before the national elections in 2002, he was barred by the Turkish Electoral Board from running for elections because of this past conviction. After his party's win at the polls, the constitution was modified to enable him to run in a by-election from the Siirt circonscription, his wife's home town, thus allowing him to enter parliament and take over the post of Prime Minister from Abdullah Gül, the actual President of Turkey.
Before his conviction, in 1997, the Welfare Party, of which he was a member at the time, was declared unconstitutional and shut down by the Turkish constitutional court on the grounds of threatening the secular nature of Turkey. In 1998, Erdogan become a constant speaker at the demonstrations held by his colleagues from the banned Welfare Party. In a speech on 12 December, 1997 at a public meeting in Siirt in the Eastern Anatolia region, Erdogan 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. He was given a prison sentence after he had read this well-known Islamic poem, including lines that he had modified himself:
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Prime Ministership, 2003-present
On 17 October, 2006, Prime Minister Erdogan suffered a mild incident of shock in public attributed to hypoglycemia, caused by a combination of intense work and Ramadan fasting. 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 locked the door to the vehicle leaving the keys inside. The security system of the vehicle locked all the doors with Erdogan 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.
Domestic policy
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; a law upheld by the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights as "legitimate" on November 10, 2005 in Leyla Sahin v. Turkey. When this appeal was rejected, Erdogan said: "The court has no right to speak on this issue. That right belongs to the Ulema".
Erdogan's government instituted several reforms such as giving the European Court of Human Rights supremacy over Turkish courts, diminishing the powers of the 1991 Anti-Terror Law which had constrained Turkeys 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.
On May 2007, the head of the top court in Turkey has asked prosecutors to consider whether Erdogan should be charged over critical comments regarding the 2007 Presidential elections. Erdogan 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 Tugcu, head of the Constitutional Court, condemned Erdogan for "threats, insults and hostility" towards the justice system.
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 Erdogan wanted to fill the vacant posts with its own Islamic-minded appointees which through this policy Erdogan was accused of creating a rift with the Turkey's highest court of appeals (the Yargitay) and high administrative court (the Danistay). Erdogan claimed that the constitution gave the power of assigning members to his elected party. Erdogan hold the position that there is nothing wrong with their policy-making regarding the positions in the judiciary, as himself a graduate of the Imam 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".
Economy
Erdogan's success story is keeping the economy on the track designed by World Bank economist Kemal Dervis. Erdogan supported Ali Babacan in enforcing Dervis's macro-economic policies. Erdogan 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. Erdogan 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. 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.
Education and health
Turkish President Ahmet Necdet Sezer stated at a speech to 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". Erdogan 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".
Concerning birth control, Erdogan had said that he personally did not practice it and was against it because the future required a dynamic young population.
On April 2006, Erdogan unveiled a social security reform package demanded by the International Monetary Fund under a loan deal. Erdogan claimed that the move, which was passed with fierce opposition, was the one of the most radical reforms. Turkeys 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.
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. These amendments were later overturned by the Constitutional Court of Turkey.
Terrorism and security
Erdogan was investigated by Turkish prosecutors for using the word Sayin (which is commonly used in Turkish as a polite alternative for 'Mr.', 'Mrs.' or 'Ms.', but literally means 'Honourable' or 'Respectable') when referring to the convicted former PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan in a 2000 interview with SBS Radio. In this interview, Erdogan also referred to the Turkish soldiers killed by the PKK as kelle (a slang word that literally means 'head'), stating that "Sayin (Honourable) Öcalan is paying the price not for his opinions, but for the kelles (heads) that he took." The expression Sayin was deemed "inconsiderate" while kelle was deemed "degrading" by many people in Turkey, especially causing outrage among the families of the dead soldiers, who filed a lawsuit against Prime Minister Erdogan and asked him to pay "3 Turkish kurus" (the equivalent of 2 U.S. cents) to each family, as a form of protest. On December 12, 2007, the Turkish court (Kartal 2. Sulh Hukuk Mahkemesi) presided by judge Sevgi Övüç found Prime Minister Erdogan guilty of insulting the memory of the dead soldiers and ordered him to pay 3 Turkish kurus (2 U.S. cents) to each of the 20 families of the dead soldiers who filed the lawsuit against him, which was the amount that the families had requested, as an expression of how much they valued Erdogan. The PKK is a militant group proscribed as a terrorist organization internationally by a number of states and organizations, including the U.S., NATO, and the EU.
Erdogan has appointed liberal Muslim theologians to the Department of Religious Affairs. He has promised to crush the country's Islamist militants. Radical Muslim groups are considered a threat to the secular political establishment.
Foreign policy
Israel and the Palestinians
Turkey was the first and only Muslim country which recognized Israel's independence in 1948, and has traditionally been a close political ally and strategic partner of Israel. However, Erdogan's Justice and Development Party (AKP) has crafted strong relations with the Palestinian Islamist militant group of Hamas, which presently controls Gaza and advocates martyrdom achieved through jihad. Erdogan has taken a strong stance against Israel's role in the 2008-2009 Israel-Gaza conflict, claiming "Israels bombardment of Gaza shows brutality and disrespect to the human life and targeting civilians. ... Whatever the reason is, killing innocent civilians will damage peace in the world." Turkey is a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council since January 2009, and Erdogan asked the United Nations to bar Israel from participation as long as it does not respect the body's calls. Israel's Government spokesman Mark Regev responded that it is illogical to expect "that Israel unilaterally cease fire while Hamas would continue to target cities, trying to kill our people."
The traditionally close relations between Israel and Turkey became strained during the latest conflict in the Gaza strip, and continued its negative pace even after Israel decided to attempt a unilateral ceasefire. On 29 January 2009, Erdogan attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, but an hour later he walked out of the forum in protest. The debate became heated in relation to the Gaza conflict. The Israeli President Shimon Peres was heavily criticized by Erdogan (sitting beside him) over the handling of the conflict. Erdogan also accused the moderator of disrespecting him by giving extra time for Peres to speak since Peres was the only one of the four panelists to hold a view contrary to that of the majority, and had thus been given time nearly equal to the combined time of the other panelists. The moderator, David Ignatius, had previously told Erdogan that there was not enough time to "start the debate again" when he requested extra time beyond that which he had previously been allotted
Erdogan returned to Istanbul the next day, and was greeted by thousands of AKP supporters at the Istanbul Airport, with some present shouting, "Turkey is with you." The allegations Erdogan had expressed in Davos against Israel, of targeting civilians in Gaza rather than militant targets, were also backed by the main opposition leader Deniz Baykal. Baykal, however, criticized Erdogan's behaviour as a political ploy aimed at influencing the upcoming municipal elections in Turkey. He also criticized the AKP government's past close relations with Israel; Turkey and Israel have signed two agreements in 1996 and 2001 (prior to the AKP government) which allows both countries to use each other's air space and Air Force bases for joint training purposes.
The European Union
On 3 October, 2005, the negotiations for Turkey's accession to the EU formally started during Erdogan's tenure as Prime Minister.
Cyprus
On 26 April 2004, a re-unification referendum supported by the United Nations was held in Cyprus. It failed after the Greek Cypriots voted to reject the Annan plan, whereas the Turkish Cypriots voted to approve it. During the period building up to the referendum, Erdogan and his party campaigned for the UN re-unification proposal.
Iraq
Faced with domestic demands to intervene in Iraq against the PKK and in defence of the Turkmens around Kirkuk in the north of the country, Erdogan pursued a more proactive foreign policy. In January 2007 Erdogan suggested that Turkey might intervene, but preferred for the interim to rely on diplomacy.
Armenia
During Erdogan's Prime Ministership, Abdullah Gül became the first Turkish head of state to visit Armenia, when he made the trip to Yerevan to watch a FIFA World Cup qualifying match between the countries. Erdogan also met numerous times with the President of Armenia, Serzh Sargsyan, the latest such meeting taking place during the World Economic Forum in Davos in January 2009.
On December 17, 2008, after a petition launched by more than 200 Turkish academics and newspaper columnists which apologized for the "Great Catastrophe" of 1915, Erdogan commented, "I find it unreasonable to apologize when there is no reason. I didn't commit a misdeed." Most Turks agree with this stance as 517,955 Muslim civilians were massacred in this era by Armenian irregular units and Armenian revolutionary groups comprised of the Dashnaks, the Hunchaks, and the Ramgavars, in addition to the French Armenian Legion and the British and Russian backed Armenian volunteer units. Anti-Turkish groups mostly within the Armenian Diaspora label this as Denial of the Armenian Genocide.
Since 2005 international airspace between Armenia and Turkey has been reopened.
2007 elections
Presidential election
On April 14 2007, an estimated 300,000 people marched in Ankara to protest the possible candidacy of Erdogan in the 2007 presidential election, afraid that if elected as President, he would alter the secular nature of the Turkish state. Erdogan announced on April 24 2007 that the party had decided to nominate Abdullah Gül as the AKP candidate in the presidential election. The protests continued over the next several weeks, with over one million reported at an April 29 rally in Istanbul, tens of thousands reported at separate protests on May 4 in Manisa and Çanakkale, and anywhere from one to two million in Izmir on May 13. Early parliamentary elections were called after the failure of the parties in parliament to agree on the next Turkish president. At the same time, Erdogan claimed the failure to elect a president was a failure of the Turkish political system and proposed to modify the constitution.
Abdullah Gül was later elected President after the general elections on 22 July 2008 that saw AKP and Erdogan brought back to power with 46.7 percent of the vote. Later in 2007, a referendum to modify the constitution to allow the people, rather than the Parliament, to elect the President was approved.
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 countrys secularist movement. Erdogan used the events at that took place during the ill-fated Presidential elections a few months earlier as a part of the general election campaign of his party. In the night of 22 July, 2007, it became obvious that AKP had won an important victory over the opposition, garnering 46.7 percent of the popular vote. July 22 elections were only the second time in the Turkish Republic's 74-year history whereby an incumbent governing party won an election by increasing its share of popular support.
Proposed ban from politics, 2008
On 14 March 2008, Turkey's Chief Prosecutor asked the country's Constitutional Court to close Erdogan's party and ban him from politics for five years. Erdogan and 70 other party members were accused of being involved in anti-secular activities. Prosecutor Abdurrahman Yalçinkaya said that he believed there was enough evidence that Erdogan has worked against Turkey's secular constitution.
The party later narrowly escaped a ban on 30 July, 2008, a year after winning 46,7 percent of the vote in national elections.
Awards
See also
External links
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