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Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Also Known As Erdoğan

Education

  • Graduated - Kasımpaşa Piyale primary school
  • - İmam Hatip school, a religious vocational high school

Overview

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is a Turkish politician serving as the 12th and current president of Turkey since 2014. He previously served as prime minister of Turkey 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 until 2014, when he was required to stand down upon his election as president. He later returned to the AKP leadership in 2017 following the constitutional referendum that year. Coming from an Islamist political background and self-describing as a conservative democrat, he has promoted socially conservative and populist policies during his administration.

Following the 1994 local elections, Erdoğan was elected mayor of Istanbul as the candidate of the Islamist Welfare Party. He was later stripped of his position, banned from political office, and imprisoned for four months for inciting religious hatred, due to his recitation of a poem by Ziya Gökalp. Erdoğan subsequently abandoned openly Islamist politics, establishing the AKP in 2001, which he went on to lead to a landslide victory in 2002. With Erdoğan still technically prohibited from holding office, the AKP's co-founder, Abdullah Gül, instead became prime minister, and later annulled Erdoğan's political ban. After winning a by-election in Siirt in 2003, Erdoğan replaced Gül as prime minister, with Gül instead becoming the AKP's candidate for the presidency. Erdoğan led the AKP to two more election victories in 2007 and 2011.

Reforms made in the early years of Erdoğan's tenure as prime minister granted Turkey the start of EU membership negotiations. Furthermore, Turkey experienced an economic recovery from the economic crisis of 2001 and saw investments in infrastructure including roads, airports, and a high-speed train network. He also won two successful constitutional referendums in 2007 and 2010. However, his government remained controversial for its close links with Fethullah Gülen and his Gülen movement with whom the AKP was accused of orchestrating purges against secular bureaucrats and military officers through the Balyoz and Ergenekon trials. In late 2012, his government began peace negotiations with the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) to end the Kurdish–Turkish conflict. The ceasefire broke down in 2015, leading to a renewed escalation in conflict. Erdoğan's foreign policy, described as Neo-Ottoman and imperialist, has led to the Turkish involvement in the Syrian Civil War, with its focus on preventing the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) from gaining ground on the Syria–Turkey border during the Syrian Civil War.

In the more recent years of Erdoğan's rule, Turkey has experienced increasing authoritarianism, democratic backsliding and corruption, as well as expansionism, censorship and banning of parties or dissent. Starting with the anti-government protests in 2013, his government imposed growing censorship on the press and social media, temporarily restricting access to sites such as YouTube, Twitter and Wikipedia. This, along with other factors, stalled negotiations related to Turkey's EU membership. A US$100 billion corruption scandal in 2013 led to the arrests of Erdoğan's close allies, and incriminated Erdoğan. In 2014, Erdoğan became president, a ceremonial office at the time, after the nation's first popular presidential elections.[28] Souring in relations with Gülen reached a breaking point after a failed military coup d'état attempt in July 2016, which the government claimed was organized by followers of Gülen, resulting in purges, declaration of Gülenists as a terrorist organisation, and a state of emergency that lasted until 2018.

Erdoğan supported the constitutional referendum in 2017 which changed Turkey's parliamentary system into a presidential system. This new system of government formally came into place after the 2018 general election, where Erdoğan became an executive president. His party however lost the majority in the parliament and is currently in a coalition (People's Alliance) with the Nationalist Movement Party (MHP).Erdoğan has decreased the independence of the Central Bank and pursued a highly unorthodox momentary policy, signficantly contributing to a currency and debt crisis starting in 2018, which has caused a significant decline in his popularity and is widely believed to have contributed to the results of the 2019 local elections, in which his party lost power in large cities such as Ankara and Istanbul to opposition parties for the first time in 15 years.

In 1976, Erdoğan engaged in politics by joining the National Turkish Student Union, an anti-communist action group. In the same year, he became the head of the Beyoğlu youth branch of the Islamist National Salvation Party (MSP), and was later promoted to chair of the Istanbul youth branch of the party.

Holding this position until 1980, he served as consultant and senior executive in the private sector during the era following the 1980 military coup when political parties were closed down.

In 1983, 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. Erdoğan entered the parliamentairy by-elections of 1986 as a 6th district candidate of Istanbul, but gained no seat as his party ended as the fifth largest party in the by-elections. Three years later, Erdoğan ran for mayor of Beyoğlu district. He finished second in the election with 22.8% of the votes. Erdoğan was elected to parliament in 1991, but was barred from taking his seat due to preferential voting

Early Life

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan born 26 February 1954 in Güneysu, Rize and later his family moved to Kasımpaşa, a poor neighborhood of Istanbul. Erdoğan's family is originally from Adjara, a region in Georgia.Although Erdoğan was reported to have said in 2003 that he was of Georgian origin and that his origins were in Batumi, he later denied this. His parents were Ahmet Erdoğan (1905–1988) and Tenzile Erdoğan (née Mutlu; 1924–2011).

Erdoğan spent his early childhood in Rize, where his father was a captain in the Turkish Coast Guard. 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. The family returned to Istanbul when Erdoğan was 13 years old.

As a teenager, Erdoğan's father provided him with a weekly allowance of 2.5 Turkish lira, less than a dollar. With it, Erdoğan bought postcards and resold them on the street. He sold bottles of water to drivers stuck in traffic. Erdoğan also worked as a street vendor selling simit (sesame bread rings), wearing a white gown and selling the simit from a red three-wheel cart with the rolls stacked behind glass. In his youth, Erdoğan played semi-professional football at a local club. Fenerbahçe wanted him to transfer to the club but his father prevented it. The stadium of the local football club in the district where he grew up, Kasımpaşa S.K. is named after him.

Erdoğan is a member of the Community of İskenderpaşa, a Turkish Sufistic community of Naqshbandi tariqah

Erdoğan graduated from Kasımpaşa Piyale primary school in 1965, and İmam Hatip school, a religious vocational high school, in 1973. The same educational path was followed by other co-founders of the AKP party. One quarter of the curriculum of İmam Hatip schools involves study of the Qurʼān, the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and the Arabic language. Erdoğan studied the Qurʼān at an İmam Hatip, where his classmates began calling him "hoca" ("Muslim teacher").[citation needed]

Erdoğan attended a meeting of the nationalist student group National Turkish Student Union (Milli Türk Talebe Birliği), who sought to raise a conservative cohort of young people to counter the rising movement of leftists in Turkey. Within the group, Erdoğan was distinguished by his oratorical skills, developing a penchant for public speaking and excelling in front of an audience. He won first place in a poetry-reading competition organized by the Community of Turkish Technical Painters, and began preparing for speeches through reading and research. Erdoğan would later comment on these competitions as "enhancing our courage to speak in front of the masses".

Erdoğan wanted to pursue advanced studies at Mekteb-i Mülkiye, but Mülkiye accepted only students with regular high school diplomas, and not İmam Hatip graduates. Mülkiye was known for its political science department, which trained many statesmen and politicians in Turkey. Erdoğan was then admitted to Eyüp High School, a regular state school, and eventually received his high school diploma from Eyüp.[citation needed]

According to his official biography, he subsequently studied Business Administration at the Aksaray School of Economics and Commercial Sciences (Turkish: Aksaray İktisat ve Ticaret Yüksekokulu), now known as Marmara University's Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences. According to the Heinrich Böll Foundation[54] and the website of the presidency, he shall have graduated in 1981 but the Marmara University was established only in 1982. Several sources dispute that he graduated, since a graduation certificate has never been presented

Erdoğan married Emine Gülbaran (b. 1955, Siirt) on 4 July 1978. They have two sons, Ahmet Burak (b. 1979) and Necmettin Bilal (b. 1981), and two daughters, Esra (b. 1983) and Sümeyye (b. 1985). His father, Ahmet Erdoğan, died in 1988 and his mother, Tenzile Erdoğan, died in 2011 at the age of 87.

Erdoğan has a brother, Mustafa (b. 1958), and a sister, Vesile (b. 1965).From his father's first marriage to Havuli Erdoğan (d. 1980), he had two half-brothers: Mehmet (1926–1988) and Hasan (1929–2006).                                 

Career

  • President of Türkiye - Turkish politician

Recognition

29 January 2004: Profile of Courage Award from the American Jewish Congress, for promoting peace between cultures.Returned at the request of the A.J.C. in July 2014.

13 June 2004: Golden Plate award from the Academy of Achievement during the conference in Chicago.

3 October 2004: German Quadriga prize for improving relationships between different cultures.

2 September 2005: Mediterranean Award for Institutions (Italian: Premio Mediterraneo Istituzioni). This was awarded by the Fondazione Mediterraneo.

8 August 2006: Caspian Energy Integration Award from the Caspian Integration Business Club.

1 November 2006: Outstanding Service award from the Turkish humanitarian organization Red Crescent.

2 February 2007: Dialogue Between Cultures Award from the President of Tatarstan Mintimer Shaimiev.

15 April 2007: Crystal Hermes Award from the German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the opening of the Hannover Industrial Fair.

11 July 2007: highest award of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the Agricola Medal, in recognition of his contribution to agricultural and social development in Turkey.

11 May 2009: Avicenna award from the Avicenna Foundation in Frankfurt, Germany.

9 June 2009: guest of honor at the 20th Crans Montana Forum in Brussels and received the Prix de la Fondation, for democracy and freedom.

25 June 2009: Key to the City of Tirana on the occasion of his state visit to Albania.

29 December 2009: Award for Contribution to World Peace from the Turgut Özal Thought and Move Association.

12 January 2010: King Faisal International Prize for "service to Islam" from the King Faisal Foundation.

23 February 2010: Nodo Culture Award from the mayor of Seville for his efforts to launch the Alliance of Civilizations initiative.

1 March 2010: United Nations–HABITAT award in memorial of Rafik Hariri. A seven-member international jury unanimously found Erdoğan deserving of the award because of his "excellent achievement and commendable conduct in the area of leadership, statesmanship and good governance. Erdoğan also initiated the first roundtable of mayors during the Istanbul conference, which led to a global, organized movement of mayors."

27 May 2010: medal of honor from the Brazilian Federation of Industry for the State of São Paulo (FIESP) for his contributions to industry

31 May 2010: World Health Organization 2010 World No Tobacco Award for "his dedicated leadership on tobacco control in Turkey."

29 June 2010: 2010 World Family Award from the World Family Organization which operates under the umbrella of the United Nations.

4 November 2010: Golden Medal of Independence, an award conferred upon Kosovo citizens and foreigners that have contributed to the independence of Kosovo.

25 November 2010: "Leader of the Year" award presented by the Union of Arab Banks in Lebanon.

11 January 2011: "Outstanding Personality in the Islamic World Award" of the Sheikh Fahad al-Ahmad International Award for Charity in Kuwait.

25 October 2011: Palestinian International Award for Excellence and Creativity (PIA) 2011 for his support to the Palestinian people and cause.

21 January 2012: 'Gold Statue 2012 Special Award' by the Polish Business Center Club (BCC). Erdoğan was awarded for his systematic effort to clear barriers on the way to economic growth, striving to build democracy and free market relations

Reference

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