In the summer of 2017, a military coup was attempted against Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan instead of surrendering; Edoğan called on his citizens to protect him and fight back against the military. Erdoğan began to FaceTime Turkish citizens and asked them to fight on his behalf.

President Erdoğan became the President of Turkey in 2014 a historically meaningless position. However, in the last five years, he has slowly made the presidency the most powerful position in the Turkish government. In the short history of modern Turkey, dating back to 1923, only one person has had more power than Erdoğan: Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Ataturk was the first president of Turkey and took the country out of a dark period and led them into modern western society, making Turkey more secular and building state infrastructure. Erdoğan is doing the opposite and making Turkey more secluded and religious while increasing his own power.

Who Is Erdogan?

Turkey’s President, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, formerly served the role of Prime Minister from 2003-2014. In 2014 under heavy criticism, Erdoğan transitioned from Prime Minister to President, the position which he still holds today . As a highschooler, Erdoğan was known to argue with classmates over matters relating to political Islam. In college at Marmara University, Erdoğan met Necmettin Erbakan an already well known Islamic Extremist in Turkey. Although religious parties in Turkey were banned Erbakan and Erdoğan were able to market themselves as being a part of the Welfare Party .

In 1994 Erdogan was elected mayor of Istanbul representing the Welfare Party. Erdogan was the first Islamist mayor of Istanbul, the election sent waves across the country causing some to question if Turkey could stay secular. During his time as mayor Erdoğan banned the sale of alcoholic beverages in Istanbul cafe’s and pushed the city towards his more conservative values. In 1998, Erdoğan was convicted for inciting religious hatred after reading a poem that compared Mosques to barracks, minarets to bayonets and faithful Muslims to an army. He resigned as mayor and served a ten-month prison sentence . After the prison sentence, Erdoğan joined the Virtue Party joining his old friend Erbakan. However, in 2001 the party was banned by the Turkish government for being too Islamist. After the party folded, Erdoğan helped found the Justice and Development Party (AKP). The AKP won the Parliamentary elections in 2002 and Erdoğan was chosen as the person to represent the party as prime minister. However, due to his imprisonment in 1998 Erdoğan was not able to serve in parliament or as prime minister. In December of 2002, a constitutional amendment was made to allow Erdoğan to hold office and remove the conviction from his record. In March of 2003 Erdoğan won a by-election and was asked by President Ahmet Necdet Sezer to form a new government, Erdoğan took the office of prime minister on May 14 2003 .

Since Erdoğan’s election in 2003 his time in power has been extremely controversial . Initially it was believed that Erdoğan had an anti-western bias however to combat this he toured Europe and the United States. In October 2003 Erdoğan approved a United States proposal to have soldiers stationed in Turkey, however the plan fell through due to Iraqi Opposition . In 2004, Erdoğan accepted the United Nations partition to reunite Cyprus yet the plan collapsed due to Greek Cypriot opposition . In 2007 tensions between the AKP and the opposition were building there was backlash when the AKP’s presidential candidate was Muslim, the nomination was met with protests and Erdoğan called for an election to settle the matter. In dramatic fashion the AKP won and had a Muslin President and prime minister. Throughout Erdoğan’s time in power, some believe he has tried to make the country more Muslim an example of this was in 2008 when parliament lifted the ban of wearing headscarves on university campuses . In 2010, a number of new constitutional amendments were made by the AKP to make the military more accountable for their actions . In 2011 Erdoğan was elected for his third term as prime minister and pledged to create a new constitution, however the AKP did not win the necessary seats to have a two-thirds majority in parliament halting the plans for a new constitution before they began. Discontent began to grow towards the end of Erdoğan’s third term in 2013. After his third term was over he was not allowed to run for prime minister again due to party rules and chose to run for President of Turkey a largely ceremonial position in years past. This was the first time that the president was ever elected directly usually, it was chosen by the parliament. It was believed that Erdoğan would attempt to expand the powers of the president. A parliamentary majority was needed however, Erodoğan and the AKP would have to wait two years to expand the powers of the president. After surviving a violent coup attempt in the summer of 2016 Erdoğan and the AKP succeeded in their attempt to expand the powers of the president. The powers would not be fully expanded until 2017 when the post of prime minister was abolished and the president was now the unitary executive power. These new terms were put in a referendum that was barely passed and the new terms were put into place after the 2018 presidential election Erdoğan won a majority of the vote for the office of president. He inaugurated on July 9, 2018, and assumed the expanded presidential powers

What is the impact of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk?

In 1923, Ataturk was established as the first president of the Modern Republic of Turkey Ataturk was given the figurative keys to the country and the freedom to do whatever he pleased to make the country more successful). This lead to the creation of Mustafa Kemal’s six fundamental principles, which were republicanism (i.e., the creation of the republic), nationalism, populism, statism, secularism, and revolution. Revolution was necessary to create full social and economic change. Nationalism and populism were used to form a sense of unity in a religious society. While simultaneously leading to the creation of a non religious government Statism lead to the government focussing on the betterment of the country and diminish the amount of foreign intervention needed.

The most important of these six was secularism which included the reform of law. The abolition of religious courts, schools and a new purely secular system of law. The Latin alphabet was substituted for the Arabic one allowed for an easier transition. The adoption of the Gregorian calendar, making Sunday the weekly holiday, the addition of last names (previously in Turkish/Ottoman society people would by one name which there parents gave them, in addition a family name could be used, but not required by the government) and lastly the abolition of certain clothing, specifically the wearing of the fez, the traditional hat of Turks under the Ottoman Empire; or clerical garb outside of places of worship was forbidden . These changes took Islam out of daily life and forced many people to change their daily routines. A full societal change took around a generation and in the country's first census, in 1927, the population was put at 13.6 million, with one quarter residing in cities. Thirteen years later in 1940, the population jumped 4.2 million up to 17.8, but the urban proportion was almost unchanged.

How was Turkey’s Government able to stay Secular for so long?

After the death of President Ataturk in 1938, Turkey began to change some of its initial policies. In 1952 Turkey joined NATO abandoning its neutrality policy. This is somewhat counter-intuitive because they joined the Alliance to preserve Peace, but it put them towards the side of the countries inside of NATO such as the United States and the United Kingdom. However, this also allowed for Turkey to be seen more as a western country than one in the Middle East.

Turkey was able to remain secular for 74 years after the country was first founded. In 1996, Mehmet Erbakan, of the Virtue Party, lead the first Islamist government since 1922 . Erbakan faced a lot of backlash and in 1998, the Virtue party was banned for being too aligned with Islam .

What is Political Islam?

The rise of political Islam in Turkey was due to the feeling of oppression that the Muslim population felt. The overwhelming majority of Turkish citizens are Muslim, Erdoğan was able to convince them that a secular government could not represent them. In the modern era, political Islam began in the early 20th century in Egypt with the Muslim Brotherhood, and is a movement that puts the Muslim identity of the party above the ethnic one. Recently president Donald Trump proposed to add the Muslim Brotherhood to the list of recognized terrorist groups. The CIA does not recognize them as a terrorist group therefore they should not be viewed in that way (. Both the Virtue party (Disbanded 1998) and the Justice and Development party (Erdoğan’s party) used the tactics created by the Muslim brotherhood to draw support. Erdoğan uses Islam as the key piece in his platform instantly connecting with They tell people who feel that Islam is a part of their identity and it has been suppressed by the government. Both of the previously mentioned parties preyed on this to get elected with promises to amend the laws that keep Turkey secular.

How Has the Country Shifted under Erdogan?/Conclusion

President Erdoğan successfully manipulated the Turkish government system to set himself up as a dictator. Erdoğan was able to use the systems that were put in place to keep Ataturk’s systems in place. Erdoğan served as prime minister three times the maximum time allowed for anyone to serve. Yet, unlike the prime ministers before him he choose to be the president a historically symbolic position, like the Queen of England, however Erdoğan chose to have a parliamentary vote to change the powers of the position and make it the most powerful position in the Turkish government . When Ataturk was President there was no term limit this was established for the betterment of Turkey . Ataturk wanted the country to be westernized and be a piece of the new industrial world and the Turkish people were willing to sacrifice for that. In return Ataturk delivered on his promises and made Turkey a first world power after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. Erdoğan is pulling the country in the wrong direction into a dark period where they would be shut off from the rest of the world. His current goals are to gain as much power as possible while making the country reflect his current views . He even what to the extent to FaceTime random civilians during a coup against his government. Erdoğan is changing the fundamental identity of a country with little regard for its citizens . In August of 2018 the Lira lost 40% of its total value. Erdoğan has moved Turkey back in time and has the ability to ruin the country forever.