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Towards his third decade in power, why prison was a turning point for Erdogan

2023-05-09 18:56:15Fokus SHKRUAR NGA ASSOCIATED PRESS
Towards his third decade in power, why prison was a turning point for Erdogan
Recep Tayyip Erdogan

In Turkey, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is already seeking a third term as president, after three previous terms as prime minister, thus aiming to extend his stay in power into a third decade. Most polls show a slight lead for his rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who heads a center-left opposition coalition that includes six different political parties.

When Recep Tayyip Erdogan enlivened crowds in 1997 by reciting a poem with Islamic overtones, Turkish courts acted swiftly to sentence the then mayor of Istanbul to prison for violating the country's secular laws and inciting religious hatred.

Mr Erdogan denounced his sentence as "shameful" at the time and thousands of supporters took to the streets to defend him.

"I was punished because I recited a poem. I want to say first of all that this is a tragedy, a shameful chapter in the history of the judiciary of our country", declared Mr. Erdogan at that time.

His opponents, however, rejoiced. The headlines in the popular newspaper Hurriyet announced that "his political career is over" and that "he can't even be elected as the mayor".

"His imprisonment was a turning point in his future relationship with people, something he always talked about. In that case, an injustice was done to Mr. Erdogan. He was expelled from politics because he recited a poem by a poet, thinker, sociologist that the government considered acceptable. This actually created a victimization of Erdogan and further strengthened his relationship with society. In the further stages of his political life, Erdogan did not remain in prison years, but turned his gaze to the future", says the political researcher, Nebi Mis.

Opponents underestimated the 45-year-old Erdogan who, after only a few months in prison, organized a return to politics and seized power for more than two decades, first as prime minister and then as president, thus becoming Turkey's longest-serving leader.

Although he initially supported reforms to transform Turkey into a model of democracy for the Muslim world, he later built an increasingly authoritarian image and suppressed dissent in order to consolidate his power.

"Many people are unhappy with the way he is running the country. So, under these circumstances, one can say that it is actually a miracle that it still enjoys 42% (support)", says Professor Soli Ozel.

Most polls show a slight lead for his rival, Kemal Kilicdaroglu, who leads the center-left Republican People's Party (CHP). The result will probably be determined in a runoff on May 28.

Mr. Erdogan faces a tough test in this election due to public anger over inflation and his handling of the aftermath of the February 6 earthquake that killed more than 50,000 people, flattened entire cities and left millions homeless.

However, analysts say Mr Erdogan's influence with loyal middle- and working-class voters who have long felt ostracized by Turkey's Western-leaning secular elites should not be underestimated.

"They arrested him. The government tried at that time to block him and they arrested him... When they said that Recep Tayyip Erdogan could not even become the president, he became president. He became the steadfast leader of the oppressed, of the Caucasus region," says a supporter of Mr. Erdogan.

The opposition coalition "National Alliance" has united six parties in support of Kemal Kilicdaroglu, despite their different political views. As in previous years, Mr. Erdogan has launched a harsh campaign against the opposition, which he accuses of collaborating with terrorists, of supporting the rights of members of the LGBTQ+ community to the detriment of the future of the "sacred structure of the Turkish family ", as he says.


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