Since coming to power in 2002 Recep Tayyip Erdogan has overseen a radical transformation of Turkey. Erdogan, could he imagine that he would one day be called REIS (chief) and be loved like this?
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was born on February 26, 1954, in the Kasımpaşa district of Istanbul's Beyoğlu district, the son of Tenzile and Ahmet. His family named him "Recep Tayyip Erdogan". They chose the name Recep because the day he was born coincides with the month of Recep according to the Hijri calendar, and Tayyip because it was the name of his grandfather.
Tenzile was Ahmet's second marriage. He had made his first marriage to Havuli. They had two children named Mehmet and Hasan from this marriage. Ahmet was working as a shore captain at the Company-i Hayriye in Istanbul. Their marriage with Hanuli had ended. Here they met Tenzile. And Ahmet made his second marriage with Tenzile. Recep Tayyip, Mustafa and Vesile were born from this marriage.
Recep Tayyip had a quiet childhood. His father was known by the nickname "Reis Captain". He liked the most when his father took him on a small boat ride around Galata and Tophane on holidays. He observed his father best on these trips, and noticed the lovable man beneath his tough temper.
Recep Tayyip started his school life in Kasımpaşa. The school was not close to their home. His mother couldn't take them to school every day. They were walking half an hour with patched shoes, summer, and winter.
Their economic situation was not very good. The children of the family were trying to keep a job and bring money to the house. Recep Tayyip used to put ice in jars that his mother filled with water, and sell cold water and bagels at the football field in their neighborhood. When it was time for boarding school, he would sell postcards when the pocket money he received from his father was not enough to cover the cost of books. In the summers, they go to Rize; They used to collect tea and nuts.
Recep Tayyip experienced the turning point of his life in the 5th grade. That day, Imam Hatip entered their lives as well. The principal of the school was dealing with the subject of "prayer". In the lesson “Who will pray?” When asked, Recep Tayyip raised his finger. İhsan Hodja followed his student's prayer. Before long, his father invited Reis Bey to school. He said to him: "Let's send Tayyip to Imam Hatip school". Perhaps the fate of Recep changed that day. His father hesitated a little and said, "As you see fit." Recep from Piyale Paşa Primary School in 1965; He graduated from Istanbul Imam Hatip High School in Fatih, where he was a boarding student, in 1973.
It was very difficult to enter the university among the imam hatips who trained clergy. That's why Recep also took the exams and got a high school diploma. In the same year, he entered Aksaray School of Economics and Commercial Sciences, affiliated to the Istanbul Academy of Economics and Commercial Sciences. Recep Tayyip graduated from this university in February 1981. Later, this faculty was affiliated with Marmara University, which was established in July 1982.
Football passion
Among his friends, he loved playing ball the most. When he was a child, he used to make those paper balls himself in order to taste the taste of the 10-minute match between recess; He would be the first to kick the ball…
While chasing paper balls, he rushed around the neighborhood in the joy of getting a ball from the pocket money he had saved during the holidays. Then, when he said the neighborhood team, he experienced his first transfer in the amateur cluster. The fee for this transfer was 500 lira. On the one hand, Recep Tayyip rejoiced, and on the other hand, he was trying to calculate how much water and bagels he sold on the football field would earn this money.
When he started working at IETT with temporary worker status in July 1974, he continued to play in the football team of the institution. He resigned from his post on 18 June 1981. After that, he played in Kasımpaşa Erokspor, one of the amateur teams, for a while.
Beginning his political career
Recep Tayyip began his political career quite early. He took his first step by joining the "National Turkish Students' Union" during his high school years. In 1975, while at university, he took another more formal step and became the Head of the Youth Branch of the National Salvation Party; In 1976, he was elected to the Presidency of Istanbul Provincial Youth Branches. He continued this duty until the MSP was closed after the September 12 Coup.
He took a break from politics in 1982 for his military service. He continued from where he left off as soon as his military service was over; would go further. He made his return by joining the Welfare Party, which was founded on 19 June 1983. He became the Beyoğlu District President in 1984. In the congress held in 1985, he was elected as a "Member of the Central Decision and Executive Board" and was appointed as the Istanbul Provincial Chairman of the party in the same year.
Erdogan got married
Erdogan gave a conference on July 4, 1978. It was during this conference that he met Emine Gülbaran. This man would one day be President of the country. Emine fell into the light of Erdoğan, unaware that she would become Turkey's "First Lady" that day.
This mutually reflected light brought them marriage and 4 children. Esra and Sümeyye to their daughters; They named their sons Ahmet Burak and Necmeddin Bilal.
Erdogan was arrested
Erdoğan was nominated as the Welfare Party Istanbul candidate in the parliamentary by-elections held on December 28, 1986; but was not selected. On March 26, 1989, he was a candidate for the mayor of Beyoğlu. Although it received 22.83% of the vote, it was not enough. Social Democratic Populist Party candidate Hüseyin Aslan's vote rate was 29.29 percent.
Erdoğan objected to the results on the grounds that there were irregularities in the results combining minutes. However, the Chairman of the District Election Board took Erdoğan to court for insulting him; He was tried with a prison sentence of 18 months to 2 years. Erdoğan was released on bail after a week in Bayrampaşa Prison.
Istanbul Metropolitan Mayor Erdogan
The Welfare Party nominated Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality mayoral election in the March 27, 1994, local elections. And Tayyip Erdogan was elected mayor of Istanbul.
Erdogan's imprisonment
The date was December 6, 1997. During his speech at an open-air meeting held in Siirt, Erdoğan recited a stanza from Ziya Gökalp's poem "Soldier Prayer" written in 1912 for Turkish soldiers in the Balkan War. This stanza was:
“Minarets are bayonets, domes are helmets.
Mosques are our barracks, believers are soldiers
This divine army awaits my religion
Allah-u Akbar, Allah-u Akbar”.
Erdogan was sentenced to prison for this quatrain he read. Erdoğan was sentenced to 1 year in prison and a heavy fine of 860 thousand TL. However, considering his situation at the hearing, his sentence was commuted to 10 months in prison and a fine of 176 thousand 666 liras.
Newspapers were published that day with the headline "Shock punishment for Tayyip - He can't even be a headman".
After he was released from prison, he formed his own party. In the elections held on November 3, 2002, Ak Parti became the first party with 34.29 percent of the votes. However, Tayyip Erdoğan could not be elected as a member of parliament because he was sentenced to prison before. He was not the prime minister. He wanted his close friend to become prime minister. Later, legal arrangements were made and the way for Tayyip Erdoğan to be elected as a member of parliament was opened and Tayyip Erdoğan was able to become the prime minister in 2003.
He has managed to become the person who governs Turkey by winning countless elections since then. There is no other politician in the history of Turkey who has shown this success. It is expected that Tayyip Erdoğan will also be a candidate in the Presidential elections to be held in 2023.