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He started as a reformist, but then changed course: 21 key moments of Erdogan's 20 years of rule in Turkey

2023-03-14 18:39:24Kosova&Bota SHKRUAR NGA ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

He started as a reformist, but then changed course: 21 key moments of
21 key moments of Erdogan's 20 years of rule in Turkey

 

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is running for a third consecutive term in May elections, marks 20 years in power on Tuesday. The 69-year-old, who served as prime minister from 2003-2014 and then as president, started out as a reformist who expanded rights and freedoms, enabling his Muslim-majority country to begin membership negotiations with the European Union .

But then he reversed course, cracking down on dissent, suppressing the media and enacting measures that eroded democracy. The presidential and parliamentary elections of May 14 may be the most challenging for Mr. Erdogan. They will be held amid economic turmoil and high inflation, just three months after a devastating earthquake that killed tens of thousands of people.

Let's take a look at some of the main moments of President Erdogan's political career:

March 27, 1994: Erdogan is elected mayor of Istanbul, as a candidate of the pro-Islamic Welfare Party.

He started as a reformist, but then changed course: 21 key moments of

December 12, 1997: Erdogan is convicted of "incitement to hatred" for reciting a poem that the court says goes against Turkey's secular principles and sentenced to four months in prison.

August 14, 2001: Erdogan, who along with other members of its reformist wing broke away from the Welfare Party, forms the conservative Justice and Development Party, or AKP.

November 3, 2002: A year after its establishment, the AKP wins the parliamentary majority in the general elections. However, Mr. Erdogan is prohibited from running because of his conviction.

March 9, 2003: Erdogan is elected to parliament in a partial vote, after the ban on his involvement in politics is lifted.

March 14, 2003 : Erdogan replaces his AKP colleague Abdullah Gul as prime minister.

3 October 2005: Turkey begins membership talks with the European Union as Mr Erdogan's government introduces a series of reforms.

July 22, 2007: Erdogan wins 46.6% of the vote in the general election.

March 31, 2008: The Constitutional Court accepts an indictment seeking the detention of the AKP on suspicion of actions that conflict with the secular state. The court ultimately decides not to ban the party, but to cut state funding for political parties.

October 20, 2008: The first trial in a series of trials against military officers, lawmakers and public figures begins. The suspects are accused of plotting to overthrow the government, and the trials turn out to be fabricated, based on false evidence aimed at eliminating Mr. Erdogan's opponents. The US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen's network was later blamed for the trials.

 

He started as a reformist, but then changed course: 21 key moments of
Erdogan during a meeting with Obama

 

September 12, 2010: Erdogan wins a referendum on constitutional changes that allow the government to appoint senior judges, weaken the powers of the military and guarantee that presidents are elected by a national vote rather than parliament.

June 12, 2011: Erdogan wins the general election with 49.8% of the vote.

May 28, 2013: Nationwide anti-government protests erupt over plans to cut down trees in Istanbul's central Gezi Park. Turkey's biggest-ever protests leave eight dead as the government is accused of using excessive force against protesters.

August 10, 2014: Erdogan wins the presidential elections held for the first time by popular vote. Although the role of the president is more ceremonial, he is accused of exceeding his powers and interfering in the running of the country.

June 7, 2015: The Development and Justice Party, led by Ahmet Davutoglu, after Mr. Erdogan took over as president, loses its majority in parliamentary elections and is forced to seek a coalition.

November 1, 2015 : The Justice and Development Party regains its parliamentary majority in repeat elections after months of uncertainty, including suicide attacks by the Islamic State group and a resurgence of conflict with Kurdish militants.

July 15, 2016: Mr. Erdogan's government survives a coup blamed on supporters of US-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, a former ally of Mr. Erdogan. The failed coup resulted in 290 deaths. The government begins a large-scale crackdown on Mr. Gulen's movement, arresting tens of thousands of supporters and firing another 130,000. Many media outlets and non-governmental organizations are shut down, and the crackdown then extends to critics, including Kurdish lawmakers and journalists. Faced with the weakening of democracy, Turkey's EU membership talks, which have made little progress, are suspended.

April 16, 2017: In a narrow referendum, voters approve changing the country's political system from a parliamentary democracy to a presidential system, weakening the office of prime minister and concentrating most power in the hands of the president. Critics call the system "the power of one man".

He started as a reformist, but then changed course: 21 key moments of

June 24, 2018: Erdogan wins the presidential election with 52.59% of the vote, becoming Turkey's first president with executive powers, while thanks to an alliance with a nationalist party, his party achieves a majority in parliament.

June 22, 2019 : Mr. Erdogan's party loses deeply in the elections for the Istanbul municipality. The elections were repeated after disputes over the process developed in March, in which the candidate of the main opposition party won by a narrow margin. This was the first time since 1994, when Mr Erdogan's candidate won, that his party has lost the leadership of Turkey's most important city.

February 6, 2023: A powerful earthquake hits Turkey and Syria and causes more than 48,000 deaths in Turkey. Mr. Erdogan's government has been criticized for its weak response after the earthquake and for the failure of policies to take measures to cope with a large-scale earthquake.

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