Recep Tayyip Erdogan is Turkey’s twelfth president. He has served as both the Prime Minister of Turkey and Mayor of Istanbul. He founded the Justice and Development Party (AKP) and led it to three victories in general elections. He has a political background in Islamism. He is a highly polarizing figure. According to his supporters, his government has enacted a number of liberal economic reforms, strengthened the Turkish economy, loosened limits on religious expression, and ended the Kurdish guerilla conflict. Through the ‘Sledgehammer’ and ‘Ergenekon’ court battles, he was able to limit the military’s political influence. However, his administration has been criticized for being autocratic, resulting in rallies against the government and killings of protestors. There was a connection between Erdoan and his allies and a $100 billion government corruption scam. Since then, the government of Erdogan has repeatedly targeted social media, the press, and human rights, as well as barred access to Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking sites. When it was discovered that Turkey was sending weapons to Syrian military factions, he was accused of maintaining financial ties with the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant extremists.
Youth and Early Life
Erdogan was born in Istanbul’s Kasmpaşa neighborhood on 26 February 1954.
His father was a member of the Turkish coast guard at Rize, where he and his family resided until Erdoan was 13 years old.
He was required to sell lemonade and simit on the street in order to make extra money.
He graduated from Kasmpaşa Piyale elementary school in 1965. Erdogan also attended mam Hatip School and Eyüp High School, where he earned his high school diploma.
The Aksaray School of Economics and Commercial Sciences awarded him a degree in Business Administration in 1981. (Marmara University).
He entered politics for the first time when he joined the National Turkish Student Union, an anti-communist organization.
Recep Tayyip’s Career
In 1984, Erdoan was appointed district chair of the Islamist Welfare Party in Beyoglu. The following year, he became the chair of the party’s Istanbul city branch.
Local elections were held on March 27, 1994, and he was elected mayor of Istanbul on that date. He received 25.19% of the popular vote.
As mayor, he attempted to address some of Istanbul’s longstanding issues, including traffic congestion, water shortage, and pollution.
In December 1997, he was found guilty of inciting religious hatred after reciting a slightly altered version of a poem by the pan-Turkish activist in Siirt, Ziya Gokalp. After serving a prison sentence from 24 March 1999 to 27 July 1999, he was prohibited from engaging in political activity.
Erdogan created the Justice and Development Party (AKP) in 2001 and led it to election success in 2002. It won around two-thirds of the seats. However, he was still banned from politics and could not run for higher office.
In the 9 February 2003 elections, Erdogan’s AKP once again secured the majority of seats. This time, he could become Prime Minister due to a modification in the law proposed by the opposition Republican People’s Party.
On March 15, 2003, he took office as Turkey’s prime minister and instituted a number of crucial changes.
On July 22, 2007, he won 46.6% of the vote in legislative elections and began his second term as Prime Minister after achieving a decisive victory.
On June 12, 2011, with 49 percent of the vote, Erdogan won a third term as Prime Minister and formed the 61st administration.
On August 28, 2014, Erdoan became Turkey’s twelfth president. With 51.79 percent of the vote, he won the first round of elections, defeating around fifteen opposition parties. This marked the first direct election of a Turkish president.
The AKP won 41 percent of the vote in Turkey’s parliamentary elections on June 7, 2015, but fell short of a majority, undermining Erdogan’s plan to transfer authority from parliament to the presidency.
Achievements
Erdogan’s government was successful in resolving the Turkey – Kurdistan Workers’ Party issue by permitting widespread use of the Kurdish language and reinstating Kurdish place names.
On April 23, 2014, Erdogan’s administration published a statement acknowledging Turkey’s culpability for the genocide of Armenians during the First World War and expressing regrets.
In 2011, Erdoan boosted the Ministry of Education’s budget from 7.5 billion lire in 2002 to 34 billion lire.
His administration improved the quality of healthcare by instituting the Green Card program, which provides health coverage to the underprivileged. When high-speed railway lines were created, transportation advanced further.
In 2004, Time magazine ranked him among the “100 most important persons in the world.”
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has received a number of prestigious awards, including the olden Plate award from the ‘Academy of Achievement’, the Outstanding Service Award from the ‘Red Crescent,’ the Agricola Medal of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the King Faisal International Prize from the ‘King Faisal Foundation,’ the United Nations–HABITAT award, the WHO 2010 World No Tobacco Award, and the ‘Gold Statue 2012 Special Award’
St. John’s University, University of Sarajevo, Istanbul University, University of Pristina, Moscow State University, University of Algiers, and nonü universities have awarded him honorary doctorates.
Personal History and Legacy
He married Emine Gulbaran on July 4, 1978, with whom he had two daughters, Esra and Sümeyye, and two boys, Necmettin Bilal and Ahmet Burak.
Erdogan is a member of the Turkish Sufi community of the Naqshbandi tariqah, the Community of skenderpaşa.
Estimated Net Worth
The net worth of Turkish politician Recep Tayyip Erdogan is $500 million. As head of state, he receives an annual salary of $65,000 USD. Recep and his family are rumored to have obtained vast assets that are hidden in offshore trusts on the Isle of Man, despite the fact that he was penniless when he entered politics decades ago.
Trivia
Erdogan played semi-professional football for a local team, Kasmpaşa Spor Kulübü when he was younger. The football stadium in the district of Kasmpaşa S.K. is named after him.
In 1974, he wrote, directed, and acted in the anti-communist play Maskomya.
monetary worth
As of December 2015, it is estimated that Erdoan has a net worth of $185 million.