Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Turkey’s leader for 20 years, won a third presidential term in a tight race. He has ruled the country with an iron fist since 2003. A look at how he became Turkey’s all-powerful leader.
Born: February 26, 1954 in Rize, Turkey.
HUMBLE BEGINNINGS
Erdogan’s father was a coastguard,on Turkey’s Black Sea coast.
When Erdogan was 13, his father decided to move to Istanbul, hoping to give his five children a better upbringing.
He attended an Islamic school before obtaining a degree in management from Istanbul’s Marmara University - and played professional football.
The young Erdogan sold lemonade and sesame buns to earn extra cash.
1994: Elected mayor of Istanbul on the ticket of the Welfare Party.
1998: Convicted for inciting religious hatred after reciting a poem that compared mosques to barracks, minarets to bayonets, and the faithful to an army. Sentenced to 10 months in prison; resigned as mayor.
RISE TO POWER
1999: Released from prison after serving four months of his sentence; re-entered politics.
2001: Founded Islamist-rooted party Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (AKP) with ally Abdullah Gul.
2002: AKP won the parliamentary elections. Erdogan was legally barred from serving in parliament or as prime minister because of his 1998 conviction. Later, a constitutional amendment removed his disqualification.
May 2003: Took office.
2007: His party won parliamentary elections. Erdogan’s second term as PM.
2011: While campaigning for parliamentary elections, Erdogan pledged to replace Turkey’s constitution with a new one. Secured a third term as prime minister when the AKP won by a wide margin in parliamentary elections. AKP fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to unilaterally write a new constitution.
2013: Protests break out against the growing authoritarianism of Erdogan and the AKP.
2014: Barred by AKP rules from seeking a fourth term as prime minister, Erdogan instead ran for president. Took office in August.
2015: Erdogan began to call for a new constitution following parliamentary elections in 2015. AKP failed to win a parliamentary majority for the first time since its formation.
2016: Survived a violent coup attempt.
2017: Sweeping changes to the constitution that would abolish the post of prime minister and empower the president as the executive head of government were put to a referendum and passed by a narrow majority.
2018: Turkish economic crisis deepens; Lira plummets. Several AKP heavyweights left the party in opposition to Erdogan’s leadership.
2019: His party loses a re-run election for Istanbul mayor.
2020: Oversaw the conversion of Istanbul’s historic Hagia Sophia into a mosque.
February 2023: A powerful earthquake devastated parts of Turkey and Syria, killing more than 50,000 people in Turkey. Erdogan criticized for poor response to the disaster.
May 2023: Won a third term as president of Turkey.